Italian film director Emanuele
Crialese came out as a trans man as he presented his new film
L'Immensità at the Venice Film Festival on Sunday - although he
stressed he had never been in the closet about his sexual
identity.
Crialese said he had been born as a girl, Emanuela, in Rome 57
years ago.
L'Immensità stars Penelop Cruz as a mother and Luana Giuliani as
her 12-year-old daughter who refuses her sexual identity just as
Crialese did.
Crialese did not go into detail about his transition to a man
but did say the film was deeply autobiographical.
"It's the film of my life, and I got into cinema for this too,
but if I had done so as my first film it would have been really
boring, and preachy, it would have been the story of a wretch
who goes through a gender crisis, and now I'm aware of how you
have to recount these things when you know how to speak,"
Crialese told ANSA in an interview.
Speaking of his own experience as a "rebirth", he went on: "it
may take you a lifetime to recount yourself as you are, but you
have to believe in yourself as you are".
He chafed at the idea of the film being his coming out, saying
"I have always been out, I'm not a rock star, why would people
care about me, but it's a film that concerns me very closely, it
tells my childhood in a very poetic way, there is not
transformation or transition, that would be disinformation".
He added: "today kids are very different, they use terms like
gender fluid for example," but it was very different back in
1970s Rome".
L'Immensità is one of five Italian films bidding for the Golden
Lion at the 79th Venice Film Festival, which runs from August 31
to September 10.
The others are Il Signore delle Formiche (The Lord of the Ants)
by Gianni Amelio, Bones and All by Luca Guadagnino, Chiara by
Susanna Nicchiarelli, and Monica by Andrea Pallaoro.
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