13/02/2025 - The Spanish filmmaker is directing Alba Rohrwacher, Elio Germano and Francesco Carril in a sentimental drama based on Michela Murgia’s eponymous book

Actress Alba Rohrwacher (© Fabrizio de Gennaro/Cineuropa) and actors Elio Germano (© Fabrizio de Gennaro/Cineuropa) and Francesco Carril (© Dario Caruso/Cineuropa)

Filming is set to begin in Rome, as of 3 March, on Tre ciotole (lit. "Three Bowls"), the new movie by acclaimed Spanish director Isabel Coixet. This filmmaker, who boasts the largest collection of Goya Awards, made a name for herself with My Life Without Me [+see also:
trailer
film profile], The Secret Life of Words [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Isabel Coixet
film profile], Elegy [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Map of the Sounds of Tokyo [+see also:
trailer
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trailer
film profile].

Tre ciotole is an Italian-Spanish production by Cattleya - belonging to ITV Studios - Ruvido Produzioni and Bartlebyfilm, together with Buenapinta Media, Bteam Prods, Colosé Producciones, Perdición Films and Vision Distribution, in collaboration with Sky and with aid from MAX in Spain. Made with the support of the Italian Minster of Culture’s Film and Audiovisual Fund for the development of investments in the film and audiovisual sector, Tre ciotole will be distributed by Bteam Pictures in Spain and by Vision Distribution in Italy, with the latter also managing international sales as of the European Film Market (EFM) which opens today. Shooting will last seven weeks, based exclusively in Rome.

The movie is based on Michela Murgia’s book of the same name - of which 200,000 copies have sold to date in Italy - and is toplined by Alba Rohrwacher (seen recently in Maria [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Finally Dawn [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Saverio Costanzo
film profile]), Elio Germano (seen recently in Sicilian Letters [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fabio Grassadonia and Anton…
film profile] and Trust [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Daniele Luchetti
film profile]) and Francesco Carril (who also starred in Coixet previous film, Un amor [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Isabel Coixet
film profile], and seen recently in the series The New Years [+see also:
series review
trailer
series profile]).

The screenplay was penned by Enrico Audenino together with Isabel Coixet herself. After what appeared to be an everyday argument – according to the synopsis - Marta and Antonio go their separate ways. Marta reacts to the break-up by withdrawing into herself. But one symptom she can’t ignore is her sudden loss of appetite. For his part, chef-on-the-rise Antonio throws himself into work. But even though he was the one to leave Marta, he struggles to forget her. When Marta discovers that her lack of appetite has more to do with her health than the pain of separation, everything changes: the taste of food, music, desire and her certainty over the choices she’s made.

“Tre ciotole”, Coixet stresses, “is my inner landscape, the story of a woman grappling with two simultaneous events: she’s in the throes of a painful separation and she’s also facing the inevitable. But she’s not a woman who begs or makes compromises; she’s a woman who accepts reality, as if knowing that the setting sun will rise again somewhere else, outside of her line of vision. I wanted to explore her journey in modern-day Rome with sensitivity and feeling, because Marta shows us that we can even find grace in the process of saying goodbye, and that there’s also room for joy amidst pain”.

As stated by the founder and chairman of Cattleya Riccardo Tozzi: “I’ve crossed paths with Isabel Coixet and come across her work a few times. When I read Michela Murgia’s book, I thought she’d be the perfect person to direct the film. She knows how to explore love in its most varied forms, and with great intensity. And this felt like a story about love and the meaning of life. Isabel was a perfect fit, her ideas were clear from the outset, not least her choice of Alba Rohrwacher and Elio Germano as our protagonists. I’m particularly thrilled to be producing this film, which is a brilliant match for Cattleya and which is important because it explores fundamental things that we all experience”.

(Translated from Italian)