Trudie Styler’s ‘Posso Entrare? An Ode to Naples’ Has U.S. Premiere at MoMA With Q&A Hosted by John Turturro

Trudie Styler had only visited Naples once before making a documentary about the storied Italian city.

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“I knew nothing at all about Napoli, but it was almost a good thing,” she said at the film’s U.S. premiere at MoMA on Wednesday. “I came with foreign lenses into a place that is very complicated and full of contradictions — at once fascinating and terrifying.”

Styler’s “Posso Entrare? An Ode to Naples” depicts the lives of several Neapolitans, shedding light on the town’s diverse — albeit violent — history. Naples’ backstory unfolds through the eyes of characters like Don Antonio Loffredo, a priest providing arts programs to keep local children out of street gangs.

Having been conquered by the Spanish, the French, the Byzantines and later, the Nazis, “Posso Entrare?” speaks to the city’s resilience in the face of tragedy.

“That darkness is ameliorated by this amazing sense of community and humanity,” Styler said. “Neapolitans are exhilarating people . They’re full of energy, full of life.”

“Posso Entrare?” had its global premiere at the Rome Film Festival in 2023. Styler has since landed a distribution deal with Disney+ in the U.K.

Following Wednesday’s presentation of the film , Styler sat down with friend and peer John Turturro, who helmed his own documentary, 2010’s “Passione,” about Naples. Guests at the screening included “The Sopranos” star Michael Imperioli and longtime Vanity Fair writer Amy Fine Collins.

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“You kind of feel in [‘Posso Entrare?’] that you’re discovering things as you go along and there’s a real thrill to that,” Turturro said.

While Styler may have been new to Naples, the filmmaker and her husband, Sting , have a long relationship with Italy. Styler gave birth to their third child, Eliot, in Pisa and the couple has owned a sprawling estate in Tuscany for 30 years.

Sting’s cameo in “Posso Entrare?” came at the urging of Don Antonio, who requested Styler’s crew return to Naples after the documentary initially wrapped. The priest led them to an inmate program at Secondigliano Prison, where the incarcerated are taught to fashion instruments out of migrant boats.

“The first guitar was coming out of the prison and Don Antonio said, ‘Is it possible to ask your husband if he will play it?'” Styler said. “It was such a privilege for Sting to actually pick that guitar up. It felt very totemic. The way the prisoners really regard those boats, they are extremely meditative, in prayer some of them, about the folks that perhaps lost their lives.”

In some ways, “Posso Entrare?” serves as an extension of Styler’s passion for activism: the director, producer and actress has been a UNICEF ambassador since 2004, and in 1989, she and Sting founded the Rainforest Foundation Fund to prevent further destruction of the Amazon.

“When we visited the Amazon, we saw so many deplorable things — the forest burning up, forest dwellers losing their homes,” Styler said. “We felt that because we’ve been privileged enough to meet those people and hear their stories, that it was upon us to bring their voices into the public. That stayed ingrained with me. And now when I see [‘Posso Entrare?’], I think that I chose some of those people whose stories we don’t hear generally.”

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