Leone Balduzzi's Documentary 'Sting Like a Bee' Blurs Reality and Fiction in Italian Provinces

Leone Balduzzi, a multi-award-winning photographer and director, makes his documentary debut with 'Sting Like a Bee,' a film that follows a group of teenagers in the Molise hills obsessed with modifying Piaggio Ape three-wheelers. The project began three years ago as a visual research commission from Nowness in collaboration with Piaggio, but evolved during casting when Balduzzi realized the interviewees could become the core of the story. The film premiered in 2023 at the Festival dei Popoli and was selected for the 2024 CPH:DOX international documentary festival in the NEXT:WAVE competition for emerging artists. Blending reality and fiction, the documentary opens with the disclaimer: 'All facts, characters, and places in this film are true. Except those we invented.' The teenagers shape their own roles through imagination, answering the initial casting question: 'What role would you like to play?' The narrative weaves love, murder, and Fast & Furious-style races against the backdrop of central Italian provinces, peach factories, beach umbrellas, and abandoned construction sites. Balduzzi's background in fashion photography informs the film's visual style. The documentary serves as a stage for those often left in the shadows: workers, the Molise region, adolescents, and their dreams.