The Hidden Review: 12 Repliche - Film Review

"God gives his hardest battles to his strongest soldiers."

The THR has been at the XX1V edition of Napoli Film Festival 2023, where it premiered the movie "12 Shows" (12 repliche) written and directed by Gianfranco Gallo starring Gianfranco Gallo, Gianni Parisi, Gianluca Di Gennaro, Roberto Azzurro, Elvis Esposito, Peppe Miale, Mariacarla Casillo, Lisa Imperatore, Margherita Di Rauso, Franco Javarone, Ester Geatta.

"12 repliche" is an LGBTQ independent Feature Film drama produced by Maxadv with support from the Film Commission Regione Campania, and has had some Festival runs, winning in Montreal as Best Feature Film and Gianfranco Gallo won Best Actor.

Furthermore, the movie takes place in Naples, set in 2016, the same year as Cirinnà's law in a phase of approbation for LGBTQ rights. However, the story focuses more on its lead character, Andrea Michelini, a veteran theatremaker who is openly Gay and in a relationship with longtime theatre company member Rolando Spinelli (Gianni Parisi). At the same time, alongside them, we notice other terrific performances of Gianluca Di Gennaro and Mariacarla Casillo, who played their adopted son and daughter. Alongside them, the fantastic performance of Lisa Imperatore in a co-supporting role in this LGBTQ story, as well as the other actors who completed the cast with their performances.

However, the story touches base on how the lead character deals with his sickness of Leukaemia while performing for a 12-day show run of "Banana Blu", a play he wrote, directed, and starred in by Andrea Michelini. It shows beautifully in these struggling moments how the character kept saying, "If I am gonna die, it will happen on stage and not in a Hospital". Therefore, he kept going and moving forward with a smile and a strong attitude, showing his theatre company members that through passion and sacrifice, you can overcome everything. This behaviour reminds us how the Neapolitan beloved Eduardo De Filippo behaved on stage in real life in terms of his work ethic, and at the same time, this reflects how a human is attached to his work and respects the theatre work itself, sacrificing all himself for the arts despite the sickness only to see a smile from their audience.

Moreover, some scenes in the Hospital remind Patch Adams's character behaviour with young patients in the movie, and as much as the case is different, Andrea Michelini searches for happiness from the basic things of life, attaching himself to his childhood memory and helping other troubled young patients going after the sickness and gifting them with smiles and laughs.

By analysing the picture, even if it is a low-budget movie, it is the case that even with a small budget amount and the right equipment, filmmakers can do magic tricks with their little resources.

Overall, it is noticeable from the photography, screenplay, and crew work that despite being filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, it is a movie to be proud of.

Congratulations, cast and crew!

Hidden Fire stars 8/10 ⭐️

Review written by Al Fenderico.

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