Can’t two twinks fall in love in peace in 1980 Sicily? No. In a nutshell, that is the story of Fireworks, a new film by Giuseppe Fiorello based on the true story of an infamous hate crime. It imagines the days leading up to the murder of two young men whose deaths caused public outrage and led to the formation of the first Italian gay civil rights organization Arcigay.
The greatest strength of the film is its depiction of a decrepit, Sicilian town in 1980. Italy has never looked so uninviting. Its crumbling ruins are ancient but ugly. The country landscape avoids being picturesque. It’s devoid of charisma. It’s a place where aimless, slow-minded men have too much time to hang around local bars watching football and harassing Gianni the gay teen who lives and works nearby. Mothers fly into fits of chain-smoking at the first sign of homosexuality. Uncles demand vengeance and teenage girls can’t decide if finding out the boy they are sweet on is gay will make them feel protective or murderous.
At the start, Gianni (Samuele Segreto) is living under the thumb of his downtrodden mother (Simona Malato) and her abusive boyfriend (Enrico Roccaforte). Gianni is already suffering from rumors of homosexuality when he and Nino (Gabriele Pizzurro) meet cute. Their mopeds collide setting off a metaphoric fusion that results in fireworks of many kinds. Though their ages aren’t given explicitly their circumstances and physicality suggest they are about fifteen. Before their friendship becomes more than that, Nino gets Gianni a job with his father’s fireworks business, and soon the two lads are lighting up the surrounding towns with celebratory explosions and necking in the car.
But in places this small it’s impossible to keep anything a secret without going to great lengths to hide it. Late in the film, one character suggests to Nino that it is possible to keep some secrets hidden forever, but the opaque advice comes too late for the young couple. They wish to enjoy each other’s company in the light and soon enough both young men’s families are fit to be tied.
The film is a slow burn, possibly too slow. It runs over two hours and any viewer not deeply invested will feel hard-pressed not to hit the fast-forward button. The camera lingers on the suspicious glances of every character the guys come into contact with often for far too long and without a great deal of variety. A sense of de ja vu creeps in more than once. After perhaps the third time director Fiorello indulges in lengthy scenes of the couple swimming in ponds or the ocean, one begins to wonder if the appearance of an alligator or shark might quicken the pace.
The film is chaste. There’s no nudity and no real passion exuded here. The love of these two young men is presented as pure-hearted and devoid of lust ostensibly to heighten the tragic pointlessness of their murders.
According to Wikipedia, ARCIgay was formed in Palermo on December 9, 1980, on the emotional wave of a demonstration organized in Giarre for the murders of Giorgio Agatino Giammona and Antonio Galatola. While it’s certainly a film of social value, it’s not breaking ground in any way that would suggest it will be of tremendous interest to audiences unfamiliar with either the crime or culture of Sicily at the time.
Guest Contributor: James Judd is a freelance writer, a performer, a frequent contributor to NPR, and a Creativity Coach. He lives on Cape Cod.
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