Italian Cinema
Italy's film industry grew in international stature following World War II, defined by titans such as Rosselini, Visconti, Fellini and De Sica. Today Italy's film industry remains vibrant, and the status of the Rome Film Festival has been growing in recent years. Our selection of films includes new movies such as Twin Flower by the young director Laura Luchetti, as well as a representative of the classic Spaghetti Western (The Great Silence, from 1968).
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The King of Laughter
One of Naples’ most beloved playwrights, Eduardo Scarpetta (Toni Servillo) staged extraordinary comedic productions with his family troupe that were only rivaled by the constant drama surrounding his tumultuous personal life. But at the height of his popularity in 1904, Scarpetta risked it all wi...
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The Truth About La Dolce Vita
In 1958 Federico Fellini was at a crossroads. He had already won two Academy Awards for “La Strada” and “Nights of Cabiria,” but no one wanted to make his latest project, a film called “La Dolce Vita.” Giuseppe Amato, who had previously produced masterpieces such as “Umberto D.” and “The Flowers ...
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Vivere
The Attorre family lives in the suburbs on the outskirts of Rome. Luca (Adriano Giannini), a frustrated freelance journalist, struggles to support Susi (Micaela Ramazzotti), a former ballerina who is now reduced to teaching dance classes for weight loss, and Lucilla (Elisa Miccoli), their quiet s...
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Molecules
Between February and April 2020, director Andrea Segre, a resident of Rome, became stuck in his father's hometown of Venice during the initial COVID pandemic lockdown. At the time, he was working on two theater and movie projects about the wounds of the city: tourism and high water. While filming...
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Darkness
Seventeen-year-old Stella (Denise Tantucci) lives with her father (Valerio Binasco) and two younger sisters in an isolated house with bolted windows. Due to a solar explosion that occurred years earlier, only the father is able to leave their home. But there is something about this strange, post-...
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Menocchio the Heretic
Italy, late 16th century. The Roman Catholic Church, feeling threatened in its hegemony by the Protestant reform movement, invokes the Inquisition to consolidate its total control. The new confessional, designed in these very years, is transformed from a space for the consolation of souls to a tr...
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Beate
After receiving notification via group text that they are being laid off, the hardworking female employees of the Veronica Garment Factory decide to “borrow” some equipment and create their own line of lingerie. Despite a lack of money and resources, the group is determined to make the new busine...
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Sin
Florence, early 16th century. Although widely considered a genius by his contemporaries, Michelangelo Buonarroti (Alberto Testone) is reduced to poverty from his struggle to finish the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. When his commissioner and head of the Della Rovere nobility Pope Julius II dies, ...
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The Mayor of Rione Sanità
Antonio Barracano (Francesco Di Leva) is the young and vigorous “mayor” of Rione Sanità. Priding himself as a “man of honor,” Barracano presides over the “two cities” of Naples – the legal and the criminal – where he distinguishes between the “decent people and scoundrels.” But when he is asked ...
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Nevia
Nevia is a poor, seventeen-year-old girl who lives in the suburbs of Naples with her aunt, grandmother, and little sister Enza. Determined to get more out of life than what fate has in store for her, she struggles to find her way in a society where men make all the rules. Everything changes, howe...
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Where I've Never Lived
After an accident forces him to be bedridden, aging architect Manfredi (Giulio Brogi) asks his daughter Francesca (Emmanuelle Devos) to help him with the renovation of a lakeside villa in Turin. Francesca, who had quit the family business to live in Paris with her husband, reluctantly agrees and ...
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If Life Gives You Lemons
Seventeen-year-old Antonio (Giampiero De Concilio) dreams of becoming a football star. Miriam (Anna Foglietta), his mother, dreams of rebuilding her family following the abandonment of her husband. When a football scout turns their eye to Antonio, the family dynamic changes.
The directorial feat...
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The Place
The fates of an apparently random group of strangers who each come into contact with a mysterious figure who they believe possesses the power to grant any wish, in return for which they must carry out a task he assigns them. An adaptation of the 2010 American TV series, The Booth at the End.
DIR...
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Selfie
Alessandro and Pietro are 16 years-old and live in Naples, district of Traiano where, in the summer of 2014, Davide Bifolco, also 16, was shot by a policeman who mistook him for a fugitive. They are inseparable friends, Alessandro works as a waiter in a bar, Pietro dreams to become a hairdresser....
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Sun, Heart, Love
Lifelong friends Eli (Isabella Ragonese) and Vale (Eva Grieco) have chosen very different paths in life: Eli has four children, an unemployed husband and a job with an almost impossible commute. Vale is single, a dancer and performer and makes ends meet by working in clubs. Tied by a profound emo...
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The Predators
This is the story of two very different families. The Pavone are intellectuals and come from the bourgeoisie. The Vismara are fascists and proletarian. A trivial accident brings these two polar opposites together and sets them on a collision course. Soon it becomes clear... they all have secrets,...
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Italian Race
A passion for engines has always run through the veins of Giulia De Martino (Matilda De Angelis of the HBO Original Series THE UNDOING) – she comes from a family that has been producing motorsports champions for generations. She’s an aspiring star too – an exceptional talent who at only seventeen...
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Caro Diario
Nanni Moretti recounts three entries from his “diary” in the hilarious and intimate self-reflective comedy CARO DIARIO, which follows the filmmaker’s musing on cinema atop a Vespa, a trip to the Aeolian Islands to work on his new screenplay, and his search for health and wellness after breaking o...
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Human Capital
Based on Stephen Amidon's acclaimed novel, director Paolo Virzì's HUMAN CAPITAL presents a riveting and stylish modern day morality tale of class, green and desire. With a lavish home and beautiful wife, hedge-fund manager Giovanni Bernaschi seemingly has it all. Meanwhile, real estate agent Dino...
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Troubling Love
What happened to Amalia? Who was with her the night she died? Her daughter Delia is saddened bythe news, but not surprised. She considers her mother to be a disgrace even before she hears of the sordid circumstances of her death. Delia travels home to Naples for the funeral and tries to piece tog...
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The Days of Abandonment
Olga's life is shattered when her husband abandons her. This prompts her to fall into a period of self-degradation and self-destructive behaviour. The attractive forty-something mother of two, was still very much in love with her husband, but he became restless and distant, and eventually left he...
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The Dinner
Based on the New York Times bestselling novel by Herman Koch, THE DINNER turns an ordinary meal among family into a taut morality play as the limits of polite society are tested and two brothers discover just how little they know about each other. Massimo is a posh and successful attorney; Paolo,...
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Twin Flower
Sixteen-year-old Anna is on the run, escaping from a violent event that has not only traumatized her but left her voiceless. On the road she is rescued by Basim, a teenage illegal immigrant from Ivory Coast. Together they embark on a perilous journey through the deserted lands, woods, villages an...
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Wondrous Boccaccio
Set against the backdrop of a 14th century, black plague-stricken Florence, ten young men and women escape to a country estate where they spend their days telling stories of love, fate, and resurrection. From legendary Italian filmmaking brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, directors of the Palme...