BALLATA FEMMENELLA

BALLATA FEMMENELLA is a moving and deeply textured journey into the largest and oldest transgender community in Europe: the femmenelle of Naples. Rooted in centuries of history and culture, the femmenelle are an integral part of the city’s identity—at once spiritual, social, and political.

Through the voices and lived experiences of its protagonists—including activists, artists, sex workers, and community leaders—the film traces both ancestral traditions and urgent contemporary struggles. It draws us into the intimate streets and hidden corners of Naples, where history, identity, and daily life are inseparable.

Their stories illuminate lives shaped by resilience, devotion, exclusion, and fierce pride, offering a portrait that is at once intimate and expansive.

Far from any folkloric simplification, BALLATA FEMMENELLA stands as both a political and poetic work—a manifesto of denied identities and a declaration of love for a community without which Naples, and perhaps Europe itself, would be immeasurably poorer.