VENICE, Italy — Mainstream feature “Diva Futura” premiered this week at the Venice Film Festival, offering a look at four decades in the Italian adult industry.
The film, directed by Giulia Louise Steigerwalt, centers on the history of prominent Italian adult agency Diva Futura, a joint venture by industry veteran Riccardo Schicchi and one of the country’s most renowned adult performers and celebrity politicians, Hungarian-Italian Illona Staller, who performed as Cicciolina.
Actors Eva Henger and Pietro Castellitto portray Cicciolina and Schicchi — from whose perspective the film is narrated, using as source material Debora Attanasio’s memoir “Don’t Tell Mom I’m a Secretary.” The film explores Schicchi’s story through his relationships with Henger, Attanasio and performer Moana.
“The sun-dappled warmth and sumptuous compositions of director Giulia Louise Steigerwalt’s filmmaking reflects the agency’s ambition to find exquisite what is labeled grotesque by the moral arbiters of the era,” wrote IndieWire’s Leila Latif, who saw “Diva Futura” at its debut Venice Film Festival screening.
Steigerwalt’s focus, Latif added, is on “how Schicchi’s vision for his company was born out of a pure, sweet desire to make its subjects ‘beautiful forever,’ fortified further when he and Attansio reject the market’s hunger for more brutal material.”
“Diva Futura” is currently seeking international distribution.
