Ketticè: A Sicilian Teen Drama Examines Youth in the Age of Social Media

*Ketticè* is a 1-hour-47-minute Italian feature written and directed by Giovanni Tortorici. The film premiered at the Locarno Film Festival and lists Luca Guadagnino as a producer. It follows a group of teenagers in Palermo during 2012, a period when Facebook dominated their digital interactions.

Hollywood Reporter

Sixteen-year-old Giulio (Salvatore Gallina) lives in a spacious villa with his well-off parents, played by Monica Bellucci and Tommaso Cristiano Wirz. His maternal grandmother (Stefania Raffadali) controls the family finances, creating tension with Giulio’s mother. Giulio excels on the local soccer team but grows restless, breaking up with his girlfriend Elena (Ida Poerio) and gravitating toward Ketty (Rachele Testagrossa), a working-class girl known for fighting. The pair bond over weed, skip school, and spend evenings buying drugs in the city’s rundown suburbs. Their routine of smoking in the car repeats until Giulio’s grades slip, his coach confronts him, and Elena spirals into heroin addiction, prompting Giulio to question his choices. The film ends abruptly, leaving his future ambiguous.

Hollywood Reporter

Tortorici, born in 1996, was 16 when the story’s 2012 setting was chosen, reflecting his personal experience of that era. Luca Guadagnino’s involvement as a producer may attract international streaming platforms seeking fresh regional content. Monica Bellucci, an Umbria native, delivers a brief but notable performance as Giulio’s mother, her accent contrasting with the Sicilian dialect spoken by the younger cast. The ensemble also includes Davide Cirri as an observant Italian teacher, Rocco Sanfilippo, Anita Teresi, Giulio Amico, and others.

Hollywood Reporter

The review characterizes the film as a portrait of contemporary teenagers that captures their language, manners, and digital habits. It praises the authenticity of the teen perspective and the solid performances of the cast, especially the chemistry between Giulio and Ketty, which remains platonic despite conventional expectations. The pacing is described as repetitive, and the characters are deemed unengaging for viewers without a specific interest in teenage life.

Hollywood Reporter

The film underscores how regional entertainment can retain strong local flavor even as global mass culture homogenizes fashion and technology. Its focus on Sicilian youth culture, dialect, and family dynamics may resonate most with audiences who experienced similar settings in the early 2010s, while also offering streaming services a culturally specific story that could attract niche viewership.

Hollywood Reporter