21/10/2025 - In Paolo Virzì’s new film, a family drama interpreted with sensibility by Valerio Mastandrea, a father who finds himself faced with a moral dilemma is in search of redemption

Valerio Mastandrea and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi in Five Seconds

Responsibility, guilt and redemption, followed by a nuanced moral dilemma, are at the centre of the new film by Paolo Virzì, Five Seconds, presented at the 20th edition of the Rome Film Fest in the Grand Public section. The family drama begins in the Tuscan countryside, where a lawyer, at the head of an important legal office in Rome, has withdrawn into solitude, the gloomy guest in the renovated stables of an uninhabited and dilapidated villa that stands a few dozen metres away in an abandoned vineyard. Played by Valerio Mastandrea with a shaggy beard and rough manners, Adriano has a plausible motivation for this escape from the world: he is on trial for the aggravated manslaughter of his 17-year-old daughter Elena. The only person to whom Adriano opens his door is his colleague and partner Giuliana, to whom the beautiful interpretation by Valeria Bruni Tedeschi gives an ostentatious cheerfulness that hides suffering. Forever in love with Adriano, the lawyer convinces him to attend the court hearing to defend himself from this horrific accusation from his ex-wife Letizia (Ilaria Spada).

While Adriano is waiting for his appointment in court, the stillness of his refuge is shattered by the arrival of a group of youngsters led by Matilde (French actress Galatea Bellugi), who as a child worked the vineyard with her grandfather Count Guelfo Guelfi. The intention of the idealistic countess is to make these precious dried vines live again, with the help of expert friends, and to share the wine “with people from the territory”. Adriano’s hostility turns into curiosity and eventually paternal tenderness (out of time) when the character realises that Matilde is pregnant.

Over the course of the hearing and through flashbacks, we learn that Elena suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and one weekend, when she was entrusted to her father, she was the victim of an incident at the lake. Adriano is accused of negligence and lack of care towards his wheelchair-bound daughter. Luca Bigazzi’s cinematography accentuates the bucolic sunniness of the countryside, which reflects the countess's freedom from all social and moral constraints (she pushed away the child’s young father because “he wanted to create a little family, how disgusting!”). That sharp light filters through the darkness of the “den” in which Adriano, both actually and metaphorically, is confined, connected to a family dimension in which “special” children require special parents, who aren’t absorbed in the chase for their own professional triumphs. “Not even this tragedy has bent your pride,” comments the wife in court.

The screenplay, signed by the loyal Francesco Bruni with the filmmaker and his brother Carlo Virzì, doesn’t renounce certain nuances of humour that traverse the drama and which are perfectly recognisable in the choice of an actor whose ability to embody human feelings with authenticity and lightness is a key factor. Adriano’s concern for the young woman, who is about to give birth, turns into a frantic attachment and reveals all too openly a gnawing desire to atone for his own guilt.

Over its final minutes, the film raises a moral question (the “five seconds” referred to in the title) which it doesn’t answer, leaving the spectator to reflect on the dilemma of accepting death in the case of terminal illnesses, the instinct to let go, to indulge the will of those for whom continuing to live no longer makes sense.

Spectators will appreciate the frankness of the protagonist faced with his own internal conflict and the difficulty of human and family relations in such dramatic circumstances, which encourages an emotional connection with the film. Some may find a lack of depth, especially as regards the female characters (and their suffering), all the more so when the idea of the responsibility of the mother, “at a distance”, is put forward, thus relieving the stigma on the pater familia.

Five Seconds was produced by Greenboo Production and Indiana Production, in association with Vision Distribution and Motorino Amaranto, in collaboration with Sky and Playtime, which handles international sales. The film will be released in Italian cinemas on 30 October by Vision Distribution.

(Translated from Italian)