LORD OF THE ANTS is the new film by Gianni Amelio, in Competition at the 79th Venice International Film Festival (#Venice79) starring Luigi Lo Cascio, Elio Germano, Sara Serraiocco and for the first time Leonardo Maltese.

The film, produced by Kavac Film, IBC Movie, Tenderstories with Rai Cinema, will be released in cinemas on 8 September 2022 distributed by 01 Distribution in Italy and by The Match Factory abroad.

Playwright and poet Aldo Braibanti was sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment on charges of plagiarism, i.e. having subjected one of his students and friends, who had recently come of age, to his will, both physically and psychologically. The boy, at the behest of his family, was locked up in a psychiatric hospital and subjected to a series of devastating electric shocks so that he would ‘recover’ from that ‘diabolical’ influence. A few years later, the crime of plagiarism was removed from the criminal code. But in reality it had served to indict the ‘different’ of all kinds, the outlaws of the norm. Based on real events, the film tells a story with several voices, where, alongside the accused, family and friends, accusers and supporters, and a mostly distracted or indifferent public opinion take shape. Only one journalist undertakes to reconstruct the truth, facing suspicion and censure.