Diciannove

A coming of age about university life, in the best spirit of Luca Guadagnino. A personal story of youth and restlessness: sleepless nights, unspoken desires, and the intoxicating pleasures of theoretical literature. 

Leonardo is nineteen – diciannove in Italian – and has just begun his literature studies in the picturesque town of Siena. He is lonely, burdened by dark thoughts, perhaps sexually repressed and closeted, and bursts into the self-entitlement of a teenager tasting independence for the first time. Giovanni Tortorici’s feature debut, produced by Luca Guadagnino and presented at the Venice International Film Festival, is a semi-autobiographical reflection on the paradox of university life: where does your soul bring you when you’re immersing yourself into the highest spheres of human intellect but have barely enough money to stay alive? -Simone Coghi