The director Camilla Salvatore: “Listening is a political act”

This entry is posted on number 26-27 of Vanity Fair on newsstands until 1 July 2025

Being himself, when the world asks you to get aside, is an act of daily courage. And every gesture of love towards one’s own truth becomes a small revolution. In Italy being a trans person often means living in a body that the world struggles to recognize, face systemic obstacles, from bureaucracy to obsolete medical practices, but also a daily life marked by invisibility, exclusion, violence. The law continues to request long, invasive and pathologizing paths to obtain the recognition of its identity, and on a social level the reception is often conditioned, partial, if not openly denied. In a context in which the rights of trans people are continuously questioned, telling their lives with respect, listening and complexity is also a political act.

The movie The capitone Of Camilla SalvatoreThat On June 26, Palazzo del Cinema will be screened in the context of the pride festival Porta Venezia MilanHosted by Saturday de Sarno, with the participation of the director and the cast, does this: it brings us into the existences of Vanessa and Ciro, trans people who live, want, work, love. People, first of all. “Not only a queer story, not only a Neapolitan story but a film that creates humanity and compassion”explains the director Salvatore.

What does “compassion” mean?
«For me it is the most important value. Just starting from Greek etymology, of suffering together, when it happens a profound understanding of the other is created. For this reason, the hand must tend to the different experience, to the alternative that helps to choose who to be in the world ».

How was the first meeting with Vanessa, your mother Lina and Ciro?
«I had returned to Naples from London, where I live today. I saw her on the street a few times and I heard that I wanted to know it. So a friendship was born, Vanessa introduced me to Ciro and her mother Lina and from day to day I discovered Vanessa’s passion for cinema, for the theater, for the show. It was also the moment when Vanessa had understood that he was a trans person ».

It was therefore not a simple moment for his life.
«That’s right, and it wasn’t even for mine. Often, even unconsciously, I looked for people to grow together, find the tools. I also made a passage together with her: from the person I was before, scared even by herself, perhaps the victim of the expectations of others, to what they are today. It was a completely hugging us ».

In the film a central role is played by the mother of Vanessa, Lina.
«Yes, I respect myself in the position he took towards Vanessa and the context that surrounds them. Lina has a great heart and deep intelligence and has chosen to transform her pain into wisdom, for itself and her daughters, and has given so much courage to me and Cyrus too. When I met him I also met an alternative to that role of woman to whom I never managed to adapt. Vanessa and her mother Lina return to the affair of very strong human values ​​».

Those increasingly under questioning values, especially for trans people.
“Biodiversity is our human heritage, it should be preserved and respected, precisely because it is not the bearer of any definition of class or political disqualification”.

He said that the protagonists of his film were also his story.
«I never wanted to work as a super partes observer. I live and then, sometimes, I return with a different language: what I learned. I never stopped the right to tell their life as I thought it was told. What I wanted to do was to make my tools available and build the film with them ».

In practical terms, how did you do it?

«I rented a space in a coworking where I saw myself with Vanessa, Lina and Ciro and we carried on a laboratory for two years. I prepared them to know what they were doing at any time and decided what to give to the public. We understood that we were often uncertain in moving in the world, although knowing what we wanted ».

How come?
«Because, for different reasons, it was never easy to take for granted that we had a place in the world. In addition to keeping their own diversity and history each with all its nuances, it is important to understand what our common territory is: this creates units, helps us ».

She, Camilla, what answers was he looking for?
«I had returned to Naples. I have always had a relationship of love and hatred towards my city, I feel I was made a little of the same pasta that Naples is made. They are made of memories, sensations, language. However, it was also difficult ».

Lina and Vanessa are from Ponticelli, Ciro grew up in Barra, she is from Torre Annunziata. All complex contexts.
«Naples has never been an easy place to become big. Today the city appears different, but I’m afraid it can be a Washing Out of what has been before. I grew up in a context where you can breathe the Camorra, there are heavy social dynamics. It was very difficult. “

Have there been episodes in particular that marked it?
«Sometimes you are too small to understand, to defend yourself. Working the film was growing together with the protagonists, also re -evaluating moments of my life ».

Naples what images do you report to?
«First the sea: when you grow up then you bring it inside. And then to the Abel Ferrara film, Naples Naples Naples. I have a wound of love for my city ».

Did the film also helped him to mend it?
«Thanks to Lina, Vanessa and Ciro I learned to embrace my freedom, to believe it until the end, to be courageous even in one’s vulnerability. The strength of these people is precisely this: don’t be ashamed of one’s fragility ».

Today in particular, trans people are among the most affected by both society and laws.
“There is a difference between the laws of the state and those of morality. The rules and the state change, you can find yourself in periods in which human values ​​are heard little, it often happens in moments of very strong crisis, as today. It happens cyclically. This also means that it is easier to identify with roles rather than building personality, identity. If I decide that with whole categories I can remove the rights, and I do it, I am preserving the well -being of a few ».

How do you come out?
«We must appeal to one’s critical sense with respect to the choices of a state that punishes with the absence of rights. We must remain united, also manifest in one’s intimacy. This is why Lina and Vanessa are important for me, because in them I see only a mother and daughter who love each other deeply. Who can judge? I only see light in them ».

Together with Milan
On June 26, at 7 pm, as part of the Pride Pride Porta Venice Milan, Anteo Palazzo del Cinema will host a special screening of the film The capitone by Camilla Salvatore Hosted by Saturday de Sarno, with the participation of the director and the cast.

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