Roman is a young latino newly arrived in Milan to rejoin his mother. He doesn’t speak much but in his silence we hear all his longing for his homeland, for some meaning. Until one day, spent like the others in the neglected jungle-feel outskirts of Milan, he meets Nora, a girl of Roman's age and origins. She lets him know about the Armada Latina, a feared and respected latin gang which he thinks might be the answer to his questions. However, before joining the new family he will have to go through a “baptism”.

Bautismo tells the story of Roman and Nora, two young latinos living on their own without any landmark, in the challenging urban environment of Milan. The suburban streets and parks are the centre stage, becoming a private jungle under the shadows of the tower blocks. This is where our protagonists find a safe heaven from the hermetic reality of the bustling and crowded metropolis, in which they find themselves misplaced, collateral, invisible.

At the same time, these places embody a symbolic echo of their homeland and of an ancient and primitive past, from which the initiatory ritual draws its roots. The “baptism” in a local latin gang is seen as the only way to find acknowledgment of their identity and a place in society.

The movie explores the primal instinct of belonging, even if it means losing one's identity. One aspect that inevitably drives to friendships as wrong and deviant as they may be, appearing in their minds as the only possible ones. The cast of Bautismo is entirely formed by non-professional actors, almost all these guys have somehow had a past linked to the gangs. This allowed the movie to tell both the fictional story line and their history.

K48 is a production company founded in 2007 in Milan by Leone Balduzzi and Barbara Guieu. It has always been led by a strong research and experimentation in the audiovisual field, K48 produces films, documentaries, short films, commercials and branded content.

Play Rough Films, set up in 2018 by the director Mauro Vecchi, is aimed at creating and developing stories for art-house feature film projects.

La Polveriera is a consortium company that operates in the field of urban regeneration, the redevelopment of cultural heritage, and the production of social innovation. It is an active laboratory of social culture that transmits and produces beauty, to generate inclusion of everyone, from the most fragile. In Reggio Emilia, a former military structure was transformed into a multi-purpose center and returned to the community.

C 41 Magazine - Niño, remember the Armada Latina on C 41? They’re back. This is El Nudo