Rocco

Rocco presents a long, candid conversation with Rocco Siffredi, the Italian adult film star whose name has loomed over European pornography for decades. The film lets him trace his path from a strict upbringing and a youthful flirtation with the idea of the priesthood, to a career built on extreme performances and public notoriety. Through interviews, family scenes, and behind-the-scenes footage he discusses how his work shaped his relationships, his role as a husband and father, and his own sense of identity. The directors allow him to reveal uncomfortable details and contradictions, and the film hints at a turning point in his personal priorities without giving away how events finally resolve.

Released in 2016, the documentary was directed by Alban Teurlai and Thierry Demaizière. It relies on extended interviews with Siffredi, intimate home footage, and archival material rather than adapting a preexisting book or screenplay, presenting the subject largely in his own words.

Box office figures for Rocco are not widely reported, and the film did not register as a mainstream commercial hit. It reached audiences mainly through festival screenings, specialty releases, and limited theatrical runs in select territories, with subsequent availability on home video and streaming platforms in some markets.

The film pushed an often-hidden industry into public conversation, turning Rocco into a figure of mainstream curiosity and controversy. It prompted debates about the ethics and economics of pornography, the nature of celebrity in adult entertainment, and how family life can coexist with a career built on sexual performance. For many viewers the documentary reframed Siffredi as a complex personality rather than a caricature.

Critical and audience response was mixed, reflected in an average rating near 5.5 out of 10 from user votes. Many praised the film for its frank, unvarnished interviews and for showing the tensions between performance and private life. Others felt it skirted broader context about the industry, suffered from uneven pacing, and sometimes veered into self-mythologizing rather than rigorous analysis. The main themes are desire as labor, the cost of notoriety, and the divide between public persona and intimate relationships.