Film Review: KETTICÈ: A Coming-of-Age Tale That’s Different and Immensely Satisfying [Locarno 2026]

Ketticè Review

Ketticè (2026) Film Review from the 79th Annual Locarno Film Festival, a movie written and directed by Giovanni Tortorici and starring Monica Bellucci, Rachele Testagrossa, Salvatore Gallina and Isabella Giuditta Pecoraino.

Filmmaker Giovanni Tortorici has done something very unusual with the new drama, Ketticè, a picture that features a “coming-of-age” story in a different way than audiences are accustomed to seeing. Set in Palermo, this movie sets its tale around a teenager named Giulio (Salvatore Gallina), who is interested in hanging out with his girlfriend, who would rather watch reality shows than spend time with her supposed boyfriend.

Ketticè feels like its raw and uncensored clips of teenagers hanging out help build the film’s major themes. Imagine a less intense and sex-driven Kids played lightly, and you get the idea of what Ketticè accomplishes.

Monica Bellucci plays Giulio’s no-nonsense mother. She doesn’t want to see Giulio waste his life as she learns from his school that he has no clear goals in mind, although he has some interest in subjects like economics. His grades are often pitifully bad, though, which further steer Giulio towards a mundane and potentially disappointing future.

Ketty is a girl played by Rachele Testagrossa. Ketty likes hanging out with Giulio although they have no clear goals in mind other than doing just that – hanging out. Perhaps, they think a lot about doing drugs, and Ketty needs money to buy some food at one point, as she and Giulio look around the floor of his car for any signs of change that they can blow together.

This is a slice-of-life movie that doesn’t tread on familiar ground, with raw conversations that feel authentic smack dab in the middle of the film’s story line about how Giulio doesn’t respect his mom’s wishes, which leads her to get aggressive and hostile towards him. She wants what’s best for her son, but he seems to push her away from him through constantly staying away from his home and away from his mom.

Bellucci doesn’t have a lot of screen time, yet the veteran actress definitely makes the role count. She plays a mom who means business, and she can’t understand how her son thinks as he dodges responsibilities and schoolwork to hang out with Ketty, who doesn’t seem interested in doing much with herself.

This movie has vibes of American movies that showcase teenagers who drift around aimlessly. It can occasionally make one think of Scorsese’s earlier pictures, although it’s not quite on that level. These characters showcased in Tortorici’s film (which is set in 2012) don’t have the ambitions of typical Scorsese characters, but the characters in Ketticè do have the personality that is necessary to keep viewers hooked while the soundtrack sprinkles an American song or two in, just for good measure, to keep the picture moving at a steady pace.

Salvatore Gallina’s character, on the surface, is much too average a young guy to be very interesting, but the people that Giulio surrounds himself with are well-conceived. One hopes that Giulio will listen to his mom’s advice, even though the likelihood of him doing that is very minimal.

Ketticè features a solid turn from Rachele Testagrossa in the title role. Testagrossa has a natural charm about her that makes the scenes where she and Gallina’s Giulio interact very plausible. Though nothing substantial comes from the bond between these two characters, their ordinary demeanors make them instantly watchable. 

This new picture never really plays its scenes for laughs, although there’s a chuckle or two to be found in the film every once and a while. Watching Giulio try to grow as a person (and as an adult) while also trying to blow off school whenever possible is part of the frustrating experience of watching Ketticè, which is a very effective movie when it wants to be. 

It’s not hard to figure out that Bellucci’s role in this picture, at least for a great deal of the film’s running time, is just her being an overbearing mom who’s trying to set goals for her son. Bellucci succeeds many time over, however. Her character’s son may never get on his feet if he doesn’t straighten up and fly right now, and the mother knows that.

Scenes between the teenage characters are well-conceived, even if the movie feels improvised half of the time. It’s not really the film’s fault that it bit off more than it could chew in terms of a few heavy situations, but it’s a good movie, nevertheless. Filmmaker Giovanni Tortorici goes for a lot of obvious hits, such as taking on several scenes with key teenager characters, who are repetitive and can be a bit dull at times, save for Giuilio, himself. Scorsese is known for casting principal stars with great futures, and, on the same token, Gallina could be an up-and-comer in the indie film world, thanks to his work here.

At the heart of Ketticè is Monica Bellucci as the mom trying to connect with her teenage kid in order to convince him to become a better person. While Giulio has quite a bit of time to make good, the scenes with him mostly lead down a path to nowhere. 

Ketticè is a great script sealed up in a decent package. While the film’s concept and talks about sex are definitely going to bring audiences to the material in order to see and hear what happens, there is the question of whether or not people will feel like the film is lacking something, namely significant plot development. It may well be lacking that, but the acting carries the movie through the slumps as do the character studies the movie presents.

This film will make some people remember youthful days of the past with glee. One doesn’t have to look too closely at the dead-end characterizations that the picture presents if one doesn’t feel the need to. This film presents characters that fail to live up to their full potential, but there’s still a glimmer of hope at the end. Ketticè will certainly find an appreciative audience as it tells its tale of young people searching for identity in an occasionally hopeless place.

Rating: 7/10

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