Darker Than Midnight

Directed by Sebastian Riso

Androgynous Davide (Davide Capone) ends up walking the streets of Catalina after his father tries to ‘cure’ the 14 year old of his more flamboyant tendencies. As a series of flashbacks show his grandmother praying and his authoritarian father raging, Davide makes friends with a group of desperate characters who live on the streets and turn cheap tricks. Based on the early life of an Italian drag queen Faxia (Davide Cordova), Davide falls for rent boy Robert (Rosario Raineri) and does learn more about life. Although the film is full of colourful gender-flexible characters, it is not dark and seems like a rather sanitised version of what would have happened. Maybe it will at least reach a wide audience in Italy where freedom of sexual orientation and gender identity has a long way to go.

Darker Than Midnight screens at the 2014 Lavazza Italian Film Festival which starts on Wednesday 24 September and runs until Wednesday 15 October at Cinema Paradiso and Luna on SX.

Lezly Herbert