12/03/2025 - In his new film that mixes together kung fu, drama, love and comedy, Gabriele Mainetti creates a melting pot of tones, genres and situations, in the image of the Roman neighbourhood in which it is set

Mei arrives on the scene like a fury. She wants to know what happened to her sister and anyone who gets in her way will suffer for it. She has the strength of desperation and an extraordinary mastery of martial arts, which she has been practicing since childhood, from when her father trained her in their backyard, in China. Now, Mei is a woman and she finds herself in the most multi-ethnic neighbourhood in Rome, the Esquilino. She doesn’t speak a word of Italian, but she makes herself understood very well with kung fu kicks (and thanks to her vocal translator on her smartphone). Her beloved older sister has been missing for a long time and Mei will do anything to find her.

La città proibita, the new film by Gabriele Mainetti, in Italian cinemas from 13 March through Piper Film, begins this way, like a bomb. After a very long fight scene that sees Mei against everyone (the character is played by professional stuntwoman Yaxi Liu, Liu Yifei’s stunt double in Mulan), her path crosses that of Marcello (Enrico Borello), a cook in his family’s restaurant and who would also like to know what happened to his father Alfredo (Luca Zingaretti), who suddenly disappeared and left him and his mother Lorena (Sabrina Ferilli) drowning in debt. And so, Hong Kong meets Rome, comedy bursts into action, in one moment we go from noodles to rigatoni all’amatriciana, while little by little a whole underworld of criminals is revealed, who exploit prostitutes and immigrants, led on one side by Mr. Wang (Chynyu Shanshan), also a restaurant owner in the Esquilino area (his Chinese restaurant is in fact called La città proibita), and on the other by Annibale (Marco Giallini), a childhood friend of the “desaparecido” Alfredo and Marcello and Lorena’s protector in his absence.

For his third feature film, Mainetti has interrupted his partnership with Nicola Guaglianone (co-author of the very successful They Call Me Jeeg [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
interview: Gabriele Mainetti
film profile] and of the ambitious but less successful Freaks Out [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Gabriele Mainetti
film profile]) and written the film with Stefano Bises and Davide Serino (the two recently signed together the acclaimed Sky series M. Son of the Century [+see also:
interview: Joe Wright
series profile]). Since the destiny of the two missing people at the centre of the story is soon revealed (unfortunately), everything becomes a matter of revenge very quickly. The fight scenes are the pulsating heart of the film – they are many, frenetic, violent, choreographed and shot impeccably. Mei delivers her blows surgically, she has superhuman strength for being a tiny woman, and she turns any object that falls into her hands into a weapon. Fans of the genre will enjoy themselves.

In La città proibita, however, there is much else: family drama and Roman comedy, loves that are born and loves that die, the intersection of peoples and cultures, China’s one-child policy, betrayals, emotion, and also various musical intervals, candle-lit dinners and drives in Vespa at the Imperial Forums in the style of Roman Holiday. The film is a melting-pot of tones, genres and situations, in the image and likeness of the Roman neighbourhood in which it is set. As in his dazzling debut film about the suburban superhero, Mainetti takes ordinary and recognisable characters and drops them in extraordinary situations. His directing skills, as well as his boldness on a production level, are confirmed. But in two hours and 15 minutes of runtime, fewer digressions would have made the whole more compact, better paced, and probably more incisive.

La città proibita was produced by Wildside (Fremantle Group), Piper Film and Goon Films. Piper Film is in charge of foreign sales.

(Translated from Italian)