When 18-year-old Irma "The Butterfly" Testa becomes the first female boxer to make Italy's Olympic team, she's an instant media sensation. Cameras can't get enough of the gorgeous young girl, and a childhood spent in one of the most violent Mafia-controlled neighbourhoods of Naples only gilds her image. Filmmakers Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman began filming the fighter long before the 2016 Rio Games and sensed a complex story beneath her Cinderella veneer. Intimate cameras capture the one constant in Irma's turbulent life: Lucio, her elderly coach, father figure and confidant. Their mutually tearful goodbye as she leaves for competition betrays Lucio's fear that he hasn't quite prepared the young star for what awaits. When she fails to reach the podium in Rio, her bravado disappears. Without any cameras watching, she now faces the fight of her life—to give into fear and an unexpected family crisis, or to fight for herself. Myrocia Watamaniuk
Made In Italy program presented in partnership with the Italian Trade Commission and Istituto Luce-Cinecittà.