The presence of Maladolescenza highlights a grey area in Letterboxd’s Terms of Service.
Over time, the Maladolescenza page has become a kind of Rorschach test for new users. Some veteran users actively discourage logging it, arguing that giving it a star rating (even ½ star) boosts its visibility algorithmically. Others call for its complete removal from the database.
As of 2025, the film remains listed but is frequently reported. Many users now add content warnings at the top of their reviews and refuse to rate it numerically.
Maladolescenza occupies a precarious and controversial position on Letterboxd. While the platform generally allows the cataloging of controversial and exploitation cinema, Maladolescenza acts as a litmus test for Letterboxd’s community guidelines regarding child safety and sexual exploitation. The film is widely regarded by the user base as a "bottom-of-the-barrel" entry in the coming-of-age genre, distinguished primarily by its notorious history of censorship and the ethical concerns surrounding its production. maladolescenza letterboxd
Because Maladolescenza is banned in multiple countries (including the UK, Germany, and Norway), its availability is limited to underground torrents, bootleg DVDs, and occasional archival screenings. Letterboxd does not host films; it only hosts metadata and user reviews.
However, the platform has faced pressure to remove the film’s page entirely. Critics argue that by allowing users to rate and review the film, Letterboxd normalizes its existence and implicitly guides curious viewers toward illegal sources.
To date, Letterboxd has kept the page, citing its policy against removing films for content alone (they have kept Salò, Cannibal Holocaust, and A Serbian Film). But Maladolescenza is different. The others feature adult actors simulating violence. This one features real children in unsimulated contexts. The presence of Maladolescenza highlights a grey area
A 2022 petition on Change.org, shared widely on Letterboxd itself, gathered 8,000 signatures demanding the removal of the film from the database. Letterboxd’s official response was that they "defer to legal authorities in each territory" and that removing the film would be "a form of historical erasure." This response was met with outrage in the comment sections.
No discussion of Maladolescenza on Letterboxd is complete without mentioning Eva Ionesco. The actress, who plays Silvia, was only 11 years old during filming. Her mother, the famous (and infamous) photographer Irina Ionesco, had been photographing Eva in erotic poses since she was a toddler.
Eva later sued her mother for the photographs and publicly stated that she felt exploited by Murgia. In interviews, she described the set of Maladolescenza as psychologically damaging. She is now a photographer and actress who has explicitly disavowed the film. Others call for its complete removal from the database
Letterboxd users frequently paste quotes from Eva’s adult interviews into their reviews. This transforms the film from a fictional narrative into a documentary of a child’s trauma. The platform becomes a space for public testimony, not just film criticism.
You might think a banned Italian film from 1977 would be forgotten. Yet on Letterboxd, as of 2025, Maladolescenza has been logged by over 15,000 users. Its rating is a bizarre 2.1 stars—a statistical anomaly where 50% of users give it half a star (the lowest possible) and 20% give it 4 or 5 stars, claiming it is a misunderstood art film.