The Mouth of the Wolf

Enzo looks handsome but dangerous, an impression that is backed up by the fact that he has spent much of his life behind bars. Yet he also has a soft side, says his wife Maria. She could see it in his eyes when she first met him.

Enzo and Maria proved to be a wonderful match. The rough, Italian macho man and the kind-hearted transsexual fell in love while they were in the same prison, and they are still together 20 years later. Their love is at the forefront of Pietro Marcello’s docudrama; in the turbulent background is the hard life in a poor neighborhood in Genoa, the history of the port city, and a past in Sicily.

Excerpts read from letters, archival footage of life in Genoa, and reenacted scenes combine to produce a raw but romantic portrait of a city and a couple. For director Marcello, who made his reputation with a number of documentaries, The Mouth of the Wolf marked a transition to a more hybrid narrative form. He has since made the award-winning feature films Bella e perduta (2015) and Martin Eden (2019).