Giovanni Tortorici’s coming-of-age drama ‘Ketticè’ is competing at the Locarno Film Festival, following the Venice-launched success of his debut ‘Diciannove’. Set in Palermo in 2012, it follows two 16-year-olds from sharply different social backgrounds whose private friendship centres on smoking cannabis, offering them respite from adult scrutiny and social pressures. The film matters as a further project from an emerging Italian director working with producer Luca Guadagnino and actor Monica Bellucci.

Tortorici drew partly on a screenplay written in his early twenties and on his own memories of adolescence in Palermo, aiming to portray the social hierarchies, family relationships and institutional control experienced by teenagers. Most roles were cast from the street, with Rachele Testagrossa and Salvatore Gallina playing Ketty and Giulio; Bellucci, one of the few professional actors, portrays an eccentric aristocratic matron. The director describes 2012 as a period of political stagnation, cultural numbness and growing social-media influence, while Ketty’s working-class background and Mafia family connection contrast with Giulio’s position.