Pianese Nunzio, 14 anni a maggio

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Pianese Nunzio, 14 anni a maggio is a 1996 movie from Italy directed by Antonio Capuano that deals with a gay Catholic priest, his pederastic relationship with a Napolitan street boy, and the domination of daily life in Southern Italy by the Camorra. The title translates as Pianese Nunzio, 14 in May and the movie was released in the USA with the title Sacred Silence.

[edit] Plot

Don Lorenzo Borrelli (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) is a priest in a poor neighborhood in Naples where Mafia killings are a daily occurrence and most young people glorify the lifestyle of organized crime as a way to earn respect. Don Borelli tries as best as he can to persuade the adolescents that the Camorra is at odds with Catholicism, but has to learn that nothing will change as long as their parents silently accept the Mafia supremacy.

Borrelli's personal life centers on his relationship with a 13-year-old choir boy, Nunzio Pianese (Emanuele Gargiulo), who is not only strikingly handsome but also a very talented musician. Nunzio plans on becoming a priest as well, as the easy life of a priest without worries about the future appeals to him.

The mobsters figure that a child molestation charge is a convenient way to get rid of the incendiary Don Lorenzo and try to get the local authorities to investigate. Meanwhile, Nunzio begins to doubt if he should stay his course or give in to the pressure to denounce Don Lorenzo.

In the end, Nunzio apparently breaks down and accuses Don Lorenzo of molestation, even though a part of him knows very well that Don Lorenzo was the only person who ever cared about his future and showed genuine affection for him.

[edit] Analysis

What may set this film apart from other efforts is that the characters are drawn with complexity and are full of conflicts regarding their moral values and their sexuality. For example, at one point Don Lorenzo prays to God for help to get rid of his impure desires, while at another point he muses that sexuality and spirituality are in a way two comparable expressions of the same thing, God.

Likewise, Nunzio is characterized as someone who is not just an innocent prey but rather someone who constantly fights between his personal desires—erotic interest in males and intellectual freedom—and the community values of heterosexuality and a "decent" job, even if in the warped worldview of the adults "decent" can mean "Mafia".

Borrelli appears to be more saddened by his inability to make things better for the people in his neighborhood than the sexual complexities of his life, which he seems to accept more readily and unapologetically.

Another movie that also features violent surroundings and the love between a man and a boy is Barbet Schroeder's Our Lady of the Assassins, which seems to arrive at a similar point in the end, namely that a relationship that under normal circumstances would be regarded as immoral can seem like the most natural thing when the world around the two lovers has apparently gone insane.