Directing

Paoli De Luca

Place of birth

Napoli, Italy

Known for

Directing

Credits

9 titles

Paoli De Luca (1999) was born in Naples and grew up in the suburbs of Portici. After classical studies in their hometown, they graduated with honors from the Academy of Fine Arts in Naples, where they developed the photonovel Fera (2018), presented at the Naples Film Festival. Meanwhile, they worked in the art field with their illustration and photography works, both behind and in front of the camera. In 2022 they wrote and directed the short movie Echoes (2021), presented at the Cineteca of Bologna, during the Divergenti Transgender Film Festival. In a layered, embryonic imaginary of different media and narratives, transgender bodies and desires are the main elements that mark Paoli’s first…

Known for

7.0

One year after she started her gender transition, Marina spends a summer weekend at the house of her best friend, Camilla. Everyone tells Marina how beautiful she has become, but she doesn’t feel like that. Instead, she constantly compares her body to Camilla’s, that she observes and portrays on her notebook. The arrival at the house of an impetuous male presence, with Lorenzo and his friends, will put to hard test Marina, Camilla and the friendship between them.

Marina

2025

7.0

Naples. In a frenetic techno club—a theater of desire, dominance, and survival—bodies collide beneath strobe lights. At the center of it all is Ronga, a trans go-go dancer who spins ceaselessly inside an iron cage; perched on stilettos, she feeds the crowd’s hunger. Orbiting her are Daniel, a photographer drawn to her raw beauty; Manuel, a toxic, predatory obsession; and Medusa, the club’s enigmatic queen who reigns from the highest platform, sporting two submachine guns embedded in her bra—her “Revolvers.” Amidst drinks, driving beats, and power games, Ronga fights for her dignity within the cruel hierarchy of her nocturnal world.