Among the wealth of documentaries about trans men and women of recent date, Into My Name stands out for the way it listens. It helps of course that one of the four friends featured, Leo Arpino, is especially articulate, and it’s crucial that director Nicolò Bassetti was guided behind the scenes by his F to M trans son Matteo Bassetti, credited as content advisor. “Restoring humanity to people involves giving them the chance to tell their own personal story” explains Leo at the start, and the director clearly took this to heart, giving ample space over two-and-a-half years to these trans men who talk of their emotional trajectories, locating their commonalities and differences but all stirred by the power of fully becoming themselves inside and out. News of Elliot Page’s late boarding as executive producer helped Into My Name rise above the flurry of trans documentaries, but ultimately it’s the film’s own strengths that will see it find welcoming audiences.
Bassetti is best known in the film world for his collaboration with Gianfranco Rosi on SacroGra, but he has none of that director’s disengaged, othering eye. He gives the four men here a safe space to recount their psychological journeys, and unlike many similarly themed documentaries the focus isn’t on the surgical transformations: their physical aspects are major elements of their conversations, but the emphasis is on how things like sprouting facial hair closes the gap between who they are and who they see in the mirror. As the title implies, Into My Name is a journey towards completing a process that begins in childhood, when something as fundamental as a gendered name can feel like a straightjacket to be cast off and exchanged for a more fitting garment.
Leo acts as the film’s guide, partly because his podcasts are ready-made, thoughtful disquisitions on the subject but also because he’s a natural gatherer of people and ideas. He’s also further along in his physical and mental journey and is an encouraging force for the others, getting them to talk (both in person and via video chat) about the ways their self-awareness as children was auto-suffocated and then allowed to germinate.
At 33-years-old, Nicolò Sproccati is the oldest of the group and the one whose transformation is the most pronounced; he’s also the person we feel we get to know best. Perhaps that’s because Bassetti includes his partner Chiara Battistini (Leo’s girlfriend Luisa Fizzarotti makes appearances but she never becomes a key presence), and there’s a sense of their process as a couple. In Nico’s case it’s also his quiet sensitivity that draws us to him, so when he talks of his amazement at looking in the mirror and recognizing himself for the first time, the declaration is powerful, almost as much as a scene towards the end when he’s cavorting shirtless in a watering hole next to a waterfall, his comfort with his body palpably exhilarating.
Also in his swimsuit is Andrea Ragno, whose video diary from 2016, when first beginning hormone treatment, gives a sense of how far he’s come. While all four men have a more all-embracing understanding of masculinity and its affect, Andrea appears to be the one who most consciously plays with his appearance, using body language, clothes and hair color to render more fluid rigid categorizations of male and female. Raffaele Baldo is the youngest of the group and the one we get to know least in a sense, his sweet character revealed but less explored than the others. At 23, perhaps he’s more in line with younger generations who, as Leo remarks, are quicker to claim their identity, with less resistance from family, friends and society at large than experienced by older trans men and women.
Text at the documentary’s end adds unrevealed information that should have been included earlier: why didn’t we know before that Nico is a pediatric physiotherapist? Raffaele’s talents as an illustrator are barely acknowledged (though his joy in constructing a bicycle is clearly conveyed), and showing Leo working at McDonald’s, without mentioning until the very end that he’s a teacher of Italian, makes it feel like we’ve been misled. Ultimately though these are minor frustrations that don’t impact the film’s significant achievement in doing exactly what Leo says at the start: restoring humanity.
Bassetti’s camera is observational without seeming to pry, and the editing seamlessly joins the four stories together, helped too by excellent sound design. The film’s opening, against Bologna’s night sky that gradually awakens to dawn, is a lovely, fitting metaphor for the overall theme, with its promise of light after the darkness.
Director: Nicolò Bassetti
With: Leonardo Arpino, Raffaele Baldo, Andrea Ragno, Nicolò Sproccati, Chiara Battistini, Luisa Fizzarotti, Dario Sebastio
Producers: Nicolò Bassetti, Lucia Nicolai, Marcello Paolillo
Executive producers: Elliot Page, Gaia Morrione
Cinematography: Nicolò Bassetti
Editing: Desideria Rayner, with Marco Rizzo
Music: Leonardo Arpino
Sound: Nicolò Bassetti, Stefano Grosso, Marzia Cordò, Giancarlo Rutigliano
Production company: Nuovi Paesaggi Urbani (Italy), Art of Panic (Italy), in association with HHH Productions
World sales: Cinephil
Venue: Berlinale (Panorama)
In Italian
93 minutes
