04/10/2023 - Fabio Mollo’s fifth film takes a heart-warming and high-emotion approach to tells the true, symbolic story of a girl with Down’s syndrome’s adoption by a single gay man

“This isn’t Sweden”. This remark made by a nurse (Antonia Truppo) in a Naples neonatal ward become something of a refrain in Nata per te [+see also:
trailer
film profile], the fifth fiction feature film by Fabio Mollo which Vision Distribution are releasing in Italian cinemas tomorrow, 5 October. Based on a true story, the film charts a great little battle for civilisation: the first case in Italy of a single man adopting a newborn girl.

Luca Trapanese (who is now a councillor for Naples’ Municipal Welfare Department) first shared his journey to become a father to Alba, a little girl with Down syndrome who’d been abandoned in a hospital, in a book he wrote with Luca Mercadante. Mollo has now transposed those pages to the big screen, and, with co-screenwriters Furio Andreotti and Giulia Calenda, has taken all the narrative liberties necessary to make this adaptation work. Luca, played by a passionate Pierluigi Gigante, is a young, gay, Catholic Neapolitan man from a wealthy, middle-class family who’s not only driven by a desperate urge to become a father, he also shows a clear propensity for caregiving. While enlisted in a seminary with a view to becoming a priest, he took part in various missions in Africa, and he’s now a volunteer in a home for people with disabilities. At the beginning of the film, Luca has a partner, but the latter isn’t quite on board with this particular path (“let’s look into other options, I want us to have our own child”) and he ends up leaving Luca. As explained by the lawyer and activist (Teresa Saponangelo) who supports Luca, the law in Italy, which goes back to 1983, only allows adoptions by “couples who have been married for at least three years”, excluding gay singletons and couples because they can’t get married. Playing on the ambiguities of this legislation which reflects a family model which is no longer fully representative of modern-day society, but which can’t be seen to openly discriminate against gay people, Luca is awarded temporary custody of the child. He eventually appeals to the conscience of a scrupulous judge (Barbora Bobulova) who places key focus on the child’s best interests, and he succeeds in adopting this sweet little newborn, who had been turned down, in the meantime, by no less than 37 “normal” families. This was on 22 June 2018.

Fabio Mollo no doubt “felt” the intense responsibility weighing down upon him during the making of this film, because, in his own childhood, he witnessed his sister’s adoption and, as an adult, he wanted to become a parent through adoption, but was unable to do so on account of being gay. This experience is reflected in the film, which reveals his special sensitivity towards the subject-matter, and towards the whole LGBT world more generally. Lengthy flashbacks reveal the protagonist’s painful childhood, offering up memories of his first love, a boy of his age who was diagnosed with an incurable disease. This definitely heightens the film’s emotional impact, which had already plucked at viewers’ heartstrings with heartrending images of the baby girl diagnosed with trisomy 21. With the exception of a few artificial moments – the words “no-one should have to justify their desire to be a parent”, spoken by the lawyer, for example – the film shies away from facile rhetoric and tackles the subject in question with great humanity. In the interests of a targeted strategy, the lawyer organises an article in the local newspaper, but Luca responds by saying “I don’t want Alba to become a mascot for Pride”. Within the wider context of diversity and inclusion, which is gaining increasing ground in European cinema, Mollo’s film has the merit of tackling a very specific subject (same-sex parenting is explored in titles including French work Baby Love [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Israel’s Concerned Citizen, Australia’s Any Day Now and America’s The Dream Children, but we’re not doubt forgetting many others), whilst also exploring the religion-homosexuality conundrum and the debate over abortion in the event of genetic illnesses. All these subjects and all this food for thought is offered up to viewers in the form of a story which is ultimately about love.

Nata per te is co-produced by Cattleya, Bartlebyfilm and Vision Distribution, in collaboration with Sky. The movie will be distributed worldwide by Vision Distribution.

(Translated from Italian)