While the global box office spent the weekend counting Spider-Man receipts, Locarno quietly opened its Golden Leopard competition with a different kind of Italian story.
Ketticè, the second feature from Giovanni Tortorici, premiered August 8 at the 79th Locarno Film Festival. Set in Palermo, Sicily in 2012, at the tail end of Silvio Berlusconi's tenure, the film follows Giulio, a listless 16-year-old who finds his first real attachment in an exclusive friendship with a girl named Ketty. The film runs 107 minutes and is produced by Luca Guadagnino alongside Marco Morabito, Agustina Costa Varsi, and Annamaria Morelli, through Frenesy Film Company, The Apartment Pictures, and Rai Cinema.
Guadagnino was Tortorici's mentor before the director made his debut feature Diciannove. He traveled to Switzerland to present the film. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Guadagnino described the current Italian film landscape as "sterile," framing Ketticè as evidence that something different is possible.
Monica Bellucci plays Giulio's mother, an aristocratic matron whose frustration has found no productive outlet. Bellucci described the character as "the victim of a social role," a woman who expresses herself through snacking, yelling, and a studied indifference to her own appearance, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Ketticè opens in Italy on September 3, 2026 via Piper Film, with international sales through PiperPlay. The Locarno competition jury, headed by Belgian filmmaker Fabrice Du Welz, decides on the Golden Leopard before the festival closes August 15.