For Pride Month, the Italian Cultural Institute of Washington presents the screening of “Baci Rubati” by Fabrizio Laurenti and Gabriella Romano.

“Baci Rubati” (Stolen Kisses) is a documentary illustrating the complexity and variety of experiences of LGBTQ+ Italians during the years Mussolini was in power. For the first time, the movie sheds light on the invisible, illustrating the still undocumented daily life of gay people of that time.

The documentary narrates the LGBTQ+ Italian community’s strategies for survival and their pursuit of happiness. Through letters, diaries and personal accounts it gives voice to individuals who could only communicate in clandestinity, using code words, meeting in secrecy and living underground lives. It narrates the “joie de vivre” of those who managed to live the way they had chosen, in spite of the persecution they suffered. Their intimate words contrast with the popular songs and the propaganda images of the time, obsessed with the myth of virility, femininity and motherhood, pervaded by sexual repression.