Giacomo Abbruzzese's Disco Boy: The Only Italian Film at Berlinale 2023

Giacomo Abbruzzese's debut feature Disco Boy premiered in competition at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, making him the only Italian director in the main competition. The film follows two parallel stories: Aleksei (Franz Rogowski), a Belarusian who joins the French Foreign Legion to obtain a passport, and Jomo (Morr Ndiaye), a young revolutionary in the Niger Delta fighting oil companies alongside the MEND movement. Their fates intertwine with Udoka (Läetitia Ky), Jomo's sister who dreams of escape. Shot over ten years, the film blends mystical narration with themes of neocolonialism, ecocrisis, and human suffering. Abbruzzese used a thermal camera for fight scenes to create abstraction and avoid gratuitous violence. The soundtrack features electronic musician Vitalic. The director, who previously taught screenwriting in Palestine (2008-2009), noted that experience deeply influenced the film. Abbruzzese criticized the current overproduction of forgettable series and the difficulty of finding experienced technicians for auteur cinema. Disco Boy won the screenplay award at the Les Arc Festival with ARTE TV.