Monica Bellucci to Star as Aristocratic Matron in Luca Guadagnino-Produced Film Directed by Giovanni Tortorici (EXCLUSIVE)

Monica Bellucci is set to play the matron of an aristocratic Sicilian family in Luca Guadagnino-produced drama “Ketticè,” directed by emerging Italian director Giovanni Tortorici.

Cameras have started rolling in Palermo, the Sicilian capital, on the film, which is a coming-of-age drama that marks the second feature by Tortortici whose debut “Diciannove” made a splash last year in Venice.

“Diciannove” opened last weekend in the U.S., distributed by Oscilloscope, with both Tortorici and Guadagnino on hand in New York to support the film.

Set in 2012 Palermo, “Ketticè” explores the dynamics between two local sixteen-year-olds, Ketty and Giulio, who together build “an exclusive friendship, a shared refuge in their search for freedom, away from the judging eye of the adult world,” says the synopsis.

The film’s title, “Ketticè,” refers to Ketty’s nickname, in Sicilian dialect, Tortorici told Variety.

“I want to describe the [Silvio] Berlusconi-era Palermo of roughly the year 2012,” the young director said. “Let’s say that my generation – compared to previous ones, or maybe even compared to today – at 16 was totally devoid of any idealism or social conscience,” Tortorici added. “So I wanted to depict the cultural stagnation that really characterized my adolescence.”

“Ketticè” delves into the dynamics and power-play between adolescents and authority, in the form of family, school, and the state, Tortorici went on to note.

Both Giulio, who comes from a Sicilian aristocratic family, and Ketty, who is more lower class, use lots of drugs — pot in particular. So they always fear they will be caught, either by the police or by others. “They are constantly trying to survive various forms of control by the adult world,” the director said.

Bellucci plays Giulio’s mother, a woman from the central Italian region of Umbria – which is where Bellucci comes from in real life – who is married to a Sicilian aristocrat. “She is a victim of this [aristocratic] social system, who gets treated horribly by her mother-in-law,” Tortorici pointed out, underlining that Bellucci’s character “suffers a form of oppression that she then perpetuates herself upon her son.”

Newcomers Rachele Testagrossa and Salvatore Gallina respectively play Ketty and Giulio.

Whereas Tortorici’s debut “Diciannove” was “A vivid, humane evocation of what it’s like to be 19 years old,” as Variety critic Guy Lodge put it in his review, “Kettice” will be Tortorici’s take on an earlier phase of teen-age life “that is a bit dumb and extreme,” he said.

“Ketticè,” which is written and directed by Tortorici, is being produced by Luca Guadagnino, Marco Morabito and Agustina Costa Varsi for Guadagnino’s Frenesy Film shingle; by Annamaria Morelli for The Apartment, which is part of Fremantle; by Francesco Melzi D’Eril e Gabriele Moratti for Memo Films; and by Massimiliano Orfei, Luisa Borella and Davide Novelli for Piper Film that will be releasing the film in Italy. The film’s French co-producers are David Zerat and Ilan Amouyal of First Picture.