Maia, known as Zen, is a girl bullied for her “tomboy” appearance. To her high school classmates, she’s a “half-female” or a “shitty lesbian.” But inside she is Zen, a boy who loves playing field hockey and has a soft spot for Vanessa, a classmate who is engaged to bully Luca. When Vanessa asks Maia for the keys to her mountain cabin to have sex with Luca, Zen gives them to her. But when Vanessa decides to hide in the cabin to escape the customs of an already preordained life, Zen will be her role model of non-conformity.

A film rooted in the LGBT+ community and in our territories, the mountains of the Emilian Apennines, to take the audience on the universal journey that leads to self-discovery, in the restless years of adolescence.

The film was developed as part of the Biennale College Cinema program. – Fondazione La Biennale di Venezia: five trips to the lagoon, meeting with more than 20 other teams from all over the world, and close training with world-class mentors. Then the film was among the program’s 3 winning projects: it received a Biennale grant and its debut at the 75th Venice International Film Festival: 9 months to produce it with a micro-budget of 200.000. We worked it in an impact-producing framework, engaging more than 100 school students in a workshop about gender and sexual orientation discrimination. And then we screened it at more than 100 festivals worldwide.
ZEN’s Subject won Special Mention at the 2013 Premio Solinas Storie per il cinema.