Italian film director tells Venice he was born a woman

Award-winning Italian director Emanuele Crialese revealed on Sunday.

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That he had been born a woman as he presented his highly autobiographical movie.

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L’Immensita focuses on an Italian family growing up in 1970s Rome, where the eldest daughter identifies as a boy.

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Trowing fuel onto already tense relations between her mother, played by Cruz, and her abusive, unfaithful father.

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“It is inspired by my childhood and my own story,” said Crialese.

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Whose last film, Terraferma, won the Special Jury Price at Venice in 2011.

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“I was born biologically a woman, but that does not mean that I don’t have in me a huge part (that is a) female character.

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That is probably the best part of me,” he said, speaking publicly for the first time about his transition.

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“At a certain point I had to make a choice ... of whether to live or to die.

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