It is one thing to be born into part of one of Italy’s most notorious crime establishments, it is quite another to deal with the fact that you might be deemed a lot more of a monster than those who are your life and blood.
In the LGBTQ+ documentary RED SHOES – IL FIGLIO DEL BOSS – THE MOBSTER’S SON, directed by Isabella Weiss, we are introduced to the life and times of Daniela Lourdes Falanga, the President of Arcigay Club of Naples and a key LGBTQ+ activist, whose own life story has become a source of interest to people who have had difficulty finding their own identity.
Growing up in a disapproving household, with a distant mother and a father who had left when she was very young, Daniela had to face up to the issues that were prevalent in her mother, who would be disgusted by her then-young-son’s desire to be opposite in a world that expected a different sense of worth in life.
Daniela found solace and belief in finding her new identity and subsequently in love with pastry shop worker Ilario Arena – himself originally female who changed gradually from the age of 20 – and who have managed to grow as people together, even if their predicament might well be frowned on by the establishment.
It is clearly a rarity for relationships like Daniela and Ilario who have managed to learn to love themselves and each other, but in her activist work, Daniela has been aiming to help LGBTQ+ prisoners in one of the oldest local Napoli prisons, the Poggioreale, where she tries to take care of like-spirited people who are unfortunately in jail at the moment – but her actions have led to an in-prison network and a listening desk called ‘Beyond The Wall’ – designed to aid those struggling to adapt to their surroundings amidst strong cultural resistance.
This documentary is a sensitively handled and sometimes sobering revelation about the plight of trans people in Italian society and is less about the backdrop of Daniela’s connection to her family past and legacy. Although the title might suggest a more bloody and crime-based documentary, the film is anything but that – and a more involving assessment of what it truly means to be like Daniela.
The Los Angeles International Film Festival (LAIFF) runs from 16th – 21st November 2021. For information and tickets etc, please go to:
www.laiff.org
