About the Director

“Born in Taranto in the south of Italy in 1983, he studied at Le Fresnoy in France and made several short films which screened at festivals including Oberhausen, Clermont-Ferrand and the Viennale as well as on international television. In 2022, his documentary America was nominated for a César. Disco Boy is his debut feature-length fiction film.” (Berlinale 2023)

Press Reviews

“Italian director Giacomo Abbruzzese makes a really stylish debut with Disco Boy, a visually thrilling, ambitious and distinctly freaky adventure into the heart of imperial darkness, or into something else entirely: the heart of an alternative reality, or a transcendent new self. This is bold film-making: a movie that wants to dazzle you with its standalone setpieces, but also to carry you along with its storytelling.” (Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian)

The Director About the Film

“I met a dancer who had been a soldier in a nightclub, the Divinae Follie [Ed. a nightclub in Apulia]. He explained this “dichotomy” through his body: a dancer’s body is the same as a soldier’s body. Although seemingly opposed, they actually have many things in common: discipline, the choreography involved is almost pleasurable thanks to the extreme effort involved, you return home destroyed and exhausted. [..] That’s where the nucleus of the film took shape. But I’d also wanted to make a war film that was different from all the others for a long time. What I mean is that, in all the war films I’ve seen, the other doesn’t exist – they’re either a victim or an enemy, but either way, the other is only on screen for two minutes.” (Giacomo Abruzzese in an Interview with Davide Abbatiescanni, Cineuropa)