“I first came to Lucca in 2018, and I thought at the time, it was a sort of a carnival with a lot of people with strange costumes and stuff like that,” film director Manlio Castagna tells Variety . “But when I entered this incredible walled city, I had the feeling it was not just a carnival, but a place where people could be happy with their identities. Lucca Comics & Games is a place where people can be whatever they want to be. They put on masks to show their true selves.”

Castagna is the director of the new documentary “I Love Lucca Comics & Games,” a passionate love letter to the biggest comic convention in Europe. For five days, the medieval Italian town in the heart of Tuscany is transformed into a Cosplay Mecca, with book signings, artist events, screenings, exhibitions and con

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