These are art films that explicitly depict adolescent sexuality or extreme taboo, often with underage or borderline-age actors. They are the closest in explicit content to Maladolescenza.
Director: François Truffaut Why it fits: This is a black-and-white, sober, fact-based film about a boy found living naked in the forests of 18th-century France. There is no sexuality, but there is a deep inquiry into what makes us human versus animal. Maladolescenza’s children are "civilized" but behave like feral animals. Truffaut’s wild child is "feral" but yearns for civilization.
The connection: Both films ask: Is cruelty natural or learned? In Maladolescenza, the children mock adult relationships. In The Wild Child, the boy must be taught kindness. They are philosophical opposites exploring the same question. movies like maladolescenza 1977
Director: Louis Malle Why it fits: If you watched Maladolescenza for its taboo-breaking depiction of a child’s sexuality, Pretty Baby is the closest Hollywood-adjacent cousin. Set in 1917 New Orleans, it stars a 12-year-old Brooke Shields as Violet, the daughter of a prostitute (Susan Sarandon) living in a Storyville brothel. The film culminates in the auction of Violet’s virginity and her marriage to a photographer.
The connection: Both films feature a pre-teen girl navigating sexual awakening with a disturbing lack of adult protection. Both use lush, almost romantic cinematography to frame deeply uncomfortable transactions. However, Pretty Baby has the weight of historical context and a more explicitly critical eye on exploitation. These are art films that explicitly depict adolescent
If Maladolescenza is the king of this niche genre, Joca Jovičević’s Mladen i lepi is the prince. Also known as Young and Beautiful, this Yugoslavian film shares an almost identical DNA with Murgia’s work.
The film follows a young man and woman spending their summer in a rural, mountainous setting, exploring their burgeoning sexuality amidst the ruins of war and nature. Like Maladolescenza, it relies heavily on atmosphere over plot. The cinematography is stunning, capturing the raw beauty of the landscape and the actors in equal measure. It captures that specific 1970s melancholic vibe—where the freedom of youth is undercut by a looming sense of dread and inevitable adulthood. It is essential viewing for those entranced by the "summer of lost innocence" trope. There is no sexuality, but there is a
Director: Harmony Korine Why it fits: On the surface, a film about college girls robbing a diner to fund spring break seems nothing like a 1977 Italian forest drama. But look closer: Korine uses the same strategy as Murgia—take young people away from adult supervision (Florida instead of the Alps), drench them in sensory overload (neon, guns, and bikinis instead of sun-dappled leaves), and watch them become monsters. The character of Alien (James Franco) is the adult predator who enables their descent.
The connection: Both films refuse to moralize. Both are beautiful and repulsive. And both end with a sense that the children have crossed a line from which there is no return. Spring Breakers is Maladolescenza for the ADHD generation.