The Boy with Pink Pants

SYNOPSIS: Teenager Andrea Spezzacatena is accepted into a prestigious papal choir thanks to his singing talent, where he befriends Christian, a popular classmate. As Andrea navigates his parents’ divorce, bullying at school escalates, culminating in a cruel prank that leaves him humiliated. Isolated and targeted for his perceived gender nonconformity, Andrea becomes the subject of online harassment. After enduring relentless bullying and rejection, he takes his own life at age fifteen. In the aftermath, his mother Teresa writes a memoir, Andrea: Beyond the Pink Pants, and dedicates her life to fighting cyberbullying.

The film is a dramatization of the real-life story of Andrea Spezzacatena, a 15-year-old boy from Rome who died by suicide in 2012 after being subjected to cyberbullying, and is based on the autobiographical novel by his mother, Teresa Manes.

DIRECTOR: Margherita Ferri

Film and TV director and screenwriter, Margherita Ferri studied at UCLA and Centro Sperimentale, National School of Cinema, Rome. In 2017/18 she took part in the Biennale College Cinema program. Her first feature film, "Zen - in the ice rift" has been produced by the Biennale di Venezia and Articolture. It premiered at 75° Mostra del Cinema di Venezia in 2018 then screened at many international film festivals winning a special mention for best debut at Frameline Film Festival. She was nominated as Best Emerging Director at Nastri D'argento 2019. Then, she directed two episodes of the Netflix Original Series ZERO (2021) and two episodes of the Amazon Prime Video original series Bang Bang Baby (2022). As a screenwriter, she wrote the thriller-horror feature film "The Nest", directed by Roberto De Feo, produced by Colorado Film and distributed by Vision and Universal. The film premiered at Locarno Film Festival in 2019.

Directed by: Margherita Ferri

Year of production: 2024

Country: Italy

Duration: 1h 54min