LE LEONESSE
During a desperate escape by sea, young Samir watches his mother drown before his eyes. The memory of that ambiguous gesture—a lifebuoy fought over in a struggle between survival and sacrifice—haunts him for the rest of his life. Years later, Samir is a successful university professor in Rome, married to Carla, a Calabrian magistrate fighting against the 'ndrangheta. Their love exists across a distance, divided between ideals and invisible wounds. When Carla investigates the arson of fishing boats linked to the boss Contursi and his henchman, Aren Musa, Samir believes he recognizes in him a shadow from the past: the man who may have caused his mother's death. The trauma resurfaces, shattering his body and mind, while pressure and threats isolate Carla. Le Leonesse is a civil and intimate drama about the price of truth and the strength of the women who resist silence and fear.
Film Information
Production and Director Notes
Massimo Spano, director, screenwriter, and producer, brings a personal and incisive vision to Le Leonesse. His direction combines social tension and emotional intensity, guiding the actors toward a dimension of authenticity that transcends realism. With visionary sensitivity, Spano constructs a cinema that interrogates memory, justice, and identity, placing women at the center as the true protagonists of resistance and change.
Le Leonesse was born thanks to an international production alliance: Michelangelo Film, Beetlefilm, Bitter Film, and GS Film (France), in collaboration with Rai Cinema. Producers like Massimo Spano, Pierfrancesco Fiorenza, and Andrea Lorusso Caputi supported the project with courage and vision, transforming it into a film that unites Italian roots with a European scope. It is a production that does not fear narrative risks but transforms them into creative strength.
Cast
Their faces convey wounds, desires, and resistance, transforming into collective voices of a universal drama. Their performative strength is not just technical, but visceral: every gesture and every silence becomes part of a narrative that vibrates with authenticity and necessity.
The cast of Le Leonesse brings together performers capable of giving body and soul to a complex story, suspended between intimacy and social tension. Haroun Fall, Giorgia Spinelli, Loredana Cannata, Antonella Ponziani, and Eric Ibojo lead an ensemble that blends experience and freshness, rooting the characters in a profound truth.
Soundtrack
The music by Edoardo Petracci moves through the film like a deep breath: tense strings, essential percussion, and suspended melodies evoke trauma and memories. The sounds become wounds and caresses, accompanying the characters through the conflict between pain and hope. They do not comment, but penetrate: a subdued and powerful chant, mirroring the resistance and the soul of the true lionesses.
Photo Gallery
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