“In Napule all ‘quant’ tenimm’ ‘nu segret’”, says Liberato at the beginning of Liberato’s secret, the documentary by Francesco Lettieri and Giorgio Testi which tells the story of the Neapolitan singer, who in recent years has become a cult figure in Italian music, despite never having revealed his face. The film will be in cinemas for only one week starting, obviously, from May 9th, like the title of one of the singer’s most famous songs.
Liberato speaks for the first time with his voice and finally reveals a part of himself (even his identity? Out of respect for the production, we won’t give spoilers). From a stylistic point of view, the feature film mixes different languages: Liberato’s secret it is at the same time a musical documentary, which recounts the 2023 concerts, those of the European tour in Berlin, Paris and London, the triple date in Piazza del Plebiscito in Naples and explains the genesis of the project. And then there is the language of animation, curated by Giuseppe Squillaci and Lorenzo Ceccotti, aka Lrnz, which borrows the aesthetics of Hayao Miyazaki to tell the singer’s (fictionalized?) childhood and youth. We see him as a child with a Pulcinella mask next to his grandfather, director of a small orchestra inside the church of Santa Maria di Materdei who plays It was May; later we find him as a boy, while he takes his first steps in the world of music chasing the myth of Daft Punk. In the end credits there is also an unreleased song by the singer, entitled Lucia (Stand by me).
“In recent years they have offered us everything: a book, a series, a documentary, stickers. Liberato, however, was good at not selling himself out,” says Francesco Lettieri via Zoom connection from his home in Pozzuoli. “At a certain point, the production company Be Water arrived and offered us yet another documentary. We set one condition, thinking that they would say no: to do something like a Japanese anime set in Naples. Generally productions run away when they hear the word animation and instead they told us yes. We started from the idea of telling a story, rather than making a music documentary, looking for a structure that was as linear as possible. Personally, I was inspired by Cattelan is dead! Long live Cattelan! it’s at Exit through the gift shop by Banksy. I’m not a fan of classic music documentaries, rather those true crime. With this project we tried to do something not only for Liberato fans, but also for everyone else. The fact of being able to play on the mystery linked to his identity also helped us. It was a bit like a detective story.”
As the director himself says in a scene of the film, the Liberato phenomenon began with a caps lock message received from an anonymous profile: “UEUE”. When Lettieri replied “Who are you?”, the reply was simply “TE POZZ’ MANNÀ ‘NU PIEZZ’?” (can I send you a piece?), which was followed by the sending of a file called “9-5.mp3”. Era May ninth, the first song released by Liberato in 2017 with a video shot with a rather low budget by Lettieri himself together with a collective made up of friends, those who at the time called themselves the Cazzimma brothers. Only at a later time, as the film explains, did the Roman label Bomba disco, the same as Calcutta and Ariete, come into play.
“The production of the documentary began during the European tour,” continues Lettieri, stroking his dark beard. “Usually a documentary about a musician is built on concert footage and an interview with the artist. Not being able to interview Liberato, because he never makes statements, we took advantage of the backstage images of the performances. And above all we focused on the people who worked on the project. At the time, some, perhaps out of envy, spoke of a project studied in advance, financed by Nike and Adidas (two brands that appear in the video May ninth) but the reality is exactly the opposite. There were never any marketing strategies behind this operation, simply ideas that worked.”
I ask Lettieri if it was difficult to integrate these shots with the story told through animation. “We did a bit of racing to finish it in time, but we are happy with the result. The initial idea was to do Miyazaki in Naples, joking among ourselves we said: ‘We have to do it The boy from the neighborhood‘ (the reference is to The boy el‘heron, ed.). But, clearly, the aesthetic references were also others, such as Daft Punk and Pulcinella, figures very dear to Liberato. Among other things, I don’t know how, they allowed us to use a Daft Punk song, Veridis quoand one of the Justices, We are your friends”, explains the director.
Watching the documentary, it makes you think how difficult it is to take care of the logistics around each Liberato performance. As Lettieri explains, every time it’s an adventure: “When we have to book a flight or a hotel, not to mention when we entered Poggioreale, we can’t give him a document and it’s a delusion. On several occasions, threatening to blow everything up was the only way to get anything done. But with him it’s difficult to even go and eat a pizza, there’s the risk that someone will recognize him.”
Among the best memories of past years, the director has the concert in Piazza del Plebiscito: “I was in the car with him on the way from the hotel to the concert. It was fun, there was a great atmosphere Ocean’s eleven. The date to which I remain most attached, however, is the first, the one at the Diaz roundabout, on the Chiaia seafront. It was the first time he had a concert in Naples, thousands of people showed up and I was very excited.”
In a sense, Liberato’s secret seems to make a point about the project, which has now overcome the phase of unexpected success and is consolidated. And on the one hand, probably, the morbid attention surrounding the identity of the Neapolitan singer has subsided. So where will Liberato start again? “The goal, perhaps also thanks to the film, is to get Liberato abroad. His concerts at two major European festivals such as Primavera sound and Sziget are the first step, we hope to do others”, concludes Lettieri.
