18/04/2025 - The Roman filmmaker behind The Hummingbird returns to directing with a dramatic story centred on international sex trafficking, starring Jasmine Trinca and Michele Riondino

Michele Riondino, Francesca Archibugi and Jasmine Trinca on the set of Illusione (© Jarno Iotti)

Shooting on Illusione, the new film directed by Francesca Archibugi, started a few days ago in Perugia, and will then move to Brussels and Strasbourg, for a total duration of eight weeks. Written by the director together with Laura Paolucci and Francesco Piccolo, Illusione is being produced by Fandango together with RAI Cinema and Tarantula Belgique, with support from the Fund for the development of cinema and audiovisual investments of the Ministry of Culture.

This disturbing story centred on international sex trafficking and related judicial investigations stars Jasmine Trinca – the multi award-winning actress and director, who recently starred in Diamanti [+see also:
film review
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film profile] by Ferzan Ozpetek (€16 million at the domestic box office and 2025 Audience David award winner) and in the Sky Atlantic mini-series The Art of Joy [+see also:
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series profile] directed by Valeria Golino, presented last year in Cannes – and Michele Riondino, winner of a David award in 2024 as actor in his appreciated directorial debut Palazzina Laf [+see also:
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film profile]. Trinca and Riondino will be supported by young actress Angelina Andrei, in her debut, and Vittoria Puccini, seen recently in Trust [+see also:
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interview: Daniele Luchetti
film profile] and in the box-office champion Madly [+see also:
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film profile]. Completing the cast are Francesca Reggiani, Aurora Quattrocchi and Filippo Timi.

The film starts on the outskirts of Perugia, where a little girl (Andrei) is found in a ditch. She is wearing a haute couture suit and is beautiful. The police are about to take away the corpse when a sigh reveals she is still alive: she is called Rosa Lazar, from Moldavia, and isn’t yet 16. The deputy prosecutor Cristina Camponeschi (Trinca) and the psychologist Stefano Mangiaboschi (Riondino) are immediately called to take on the case. The investigation is more complicated than expected because Rosa doesn’t seem aware of the brutal violence she has experienced and is covering up the truth. Behind the mask of constant joy emerges a very disturbed psychological profile. How did this lolita, who doesn’t seem to be a typical sex worker and behave like a little girl, arrive in Perugia? For the prosecutor, Rosa will become the key to an international investigation regarding disturbing scenarios. For the psychologist, it will be another kind of investigation, one that will bring him to discover the real enigma of Rosa Lazar.

After her brilliant debut, Mignon Has Come to Stay, in 1988 (which garnered five David di Donatello Awards), Francesca Archibugi established herself with Verso sera, Il grande cocomero and Shooting the Moon, and as the screenwriter of successful films by Paolo Virzì, such as Like Crazy [+see also:
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Q&A: Paolo Virzì
film profile], for which she won the Suso Cecchi D’Amico award, The Leisure Seeker [+see also:
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Q&A: Paolo Virzì
film profile], Magical Nights [+see also:
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film profile] by Maria Sole Tognazzi. In 2022, she returned to the big screen as director of The Hummingbird [+see also:
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interview: Benedetta Porcaroli
film profile], based on the eponymous novel by Sandro Veronesi, winner of the 2020 Strega award.

(Translated from Italian)