Massimo D’Anolfi was born in Pesca in 1974. In 1992 he arrived in Naples where he began studying oriental languages and culture. He also began making feature and documentary videos that he sent to Italian and international festivals. In 1998 he moved to Palermo and worked as an assistant director to Roberta Torri on her film Sud Side Story. Afterwards they wrote the screenplay for a play that was staged in Teatro Stabile in Catania. In 2001, D’Anolfi wrote the screenplay for Torri’s feature film Angela, which was shown in Cannes in 2002.