Duino (2024) di Juan Pablo di Pace e Andrés Pepe Estrada

“DUINO”, BY JUAN PABLO DI PACE AND ANDRÉS  PEPE ESTRADA

Article by Alessandra Sottini.

Translation by Irene Pezzini.

(Sexual) identity and love. When these planes of emotional and subjective experience intertwine with each other during adolescence, inevitably everything becomes amplified and confused. And when the awareness that comes with maturity, you either come to terms with yourself or you remain in a limbo.

In Duino – premiered at the 39th edition of the Lovers Film Festival and screened as the opening film at Torino Film Industry 7 – the biography of the protagonist Matías, an established Argentinean filmmaker, becomes the narrative material for a film. While recalling his time spent at the United World College Adriatic, at the age of seventeen, Matías is unable to find a worthy conclusion to his feature film. And how could he, since his love for Alexander, a schoolmate of Swedish origin, was unrequited?

Duino’s story is first and foremost a meta-cinematic experience, narrated by the alternation of the temporal planes of past and present. The youth of Matías (Santiago Madrussan), his memory and his unfolding film are presented in all their spontaneity: friendships, life at boarding school and the growing attraction for Alexander (Oscar Morgan). This temporal portion is therefore the crux of the matter.

Duino (2024) - recensione

The main character is fully aware of the fact that that first adolescent love remained ‘platonic’, suspended in the wait for that hand, outstretched to reach the object of its desire, to find the courage to seal that revelation. The only way to finish the film is to return to the present: twenty-five years later, Matías, played by the director Juan Pablo himself, meets Alexander (August Wittgenstein) again.

Juan Pablo and Andrés Pepe Estrada’s debut feature is a tale of personal and sexual formation, that focuses on the changes of age and emotional needs. Juan Pablo, impersonating the 40-year-old counterpart of the protagonist, is thus the voice of diegetic reason. The pictorial and sculptural images of Alexander’s family home, on the other hand, just like the echo of classical music, are the sublimation of the impossibility of communication, on pain of breaking the family and social equilibrium.

Duino, in staging its story, does not forget to create a dialogue with the audience, raising awareness on LGBTQ+ fiction, in the wake of other memorable works, such as Call Me by Your Name.

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