06/05/2026 - Toplined by a “magical” girl, Francesca Archibugi’s new film is a thriller revolving around international sex trafficking and characters grappling with their darker sides

It all began with a short article in a smalltown newspaper. A young woman – potentially a minor who was potentially from the East – was found in a ditch on the outskirts of Perugia, well-dressed and on the brink of death. But by the following day, nobody was talking about it anymore. “It felt like the world wasn’t interested in this young woman, so I said to myself, ‘OK, well, it’s important to me’”. This is how Francesca Archibugi explains the genesis of her new film, Illusion, which is being released in Italian cinemas on 7 May via 01 Distribution, following its debut in Rome Film Fest back in October and a subsequent stint in Bif&st 2026. Archibugi has constructed a fantasy character based around this young woman, as well as an investigation into this mysterious affair and an entire universe of mafia groups, exploitation and power reaching as high-up as the European Parliament.

Written by the director in league with her peer Francesco Piccolo and Laura Paolucci (the trio previously teamed up to pen the screenplay for The Hummingbird), based on a treatment which  was an impressive 90 pages long, Illusion is a rich and complex film which explores international sex trafficking but whose main focus is on people, since the judicial inquiry goes hand in hand with a psychological investigation which ultimately delves into all the characters’ ambiguities. At the heart of it all is Rosa Lazar (played by newcomer Angelina Andrei), a lively Moldovan 15-year-old who seems to hail from another world: she’s pretty, blond, always happy and full of light, in spite of all the cuts and bruises that have come from being found unconscious by the side of a road. She’s welcomed into a family home, while austere deputy prosecutor Cristina Camponeschi (Jasmine Trinca) and chaotic child psychologist Stefano Mangiaboschi (Michele Riondino) investigate her case. Rosa falls in love with the latter, who quickly diagnoses the young woman with a psychiatric disorder which causes her to distort reality. The young woman comes across as naive yet brash, and wholly oblivious to what she’s been through.

As it moves backwards and forwards between the past and present, the film focuses on the story of this child in the body of a woman, who seems to trust anyone and everyone - even people she really shouldn’t - and who dreams of becoming a model. Originally from a deprived village on the outskirts of Bucharest, she’s brought to Strasburg to live with her cousin after winning a local beauty contest. He introduces her to the halls of power, where money, sex and drugs flow freely. Rosa becomes famous as the “Moldovan virgin” and her company is highly sought after, even at the highest levels of the European institutions. Little by little, the film reconstructs how she later comes to be found lying bruised and battered in a ditch in Perugia, while, in the present day, the darker sides of the people investigating her case come to the fore (the cast also features Filippo Timi as the local deputy commissioner and Vittoria Puccini as Stefano’s wife, who warns him about the dangers of transference), revealing rivalries and suspicions, murky pasts, dysfunctional families, couples in crisis, moral dilemmas and media distortions. The psychologist ends up in trouble, suspected of inappropriate behaviour, while we continue trying to work out what actually happened to little Rosa during her descent into hell.

Does the film try to juggle too much? Potentially. But the plot is gripping and a special mention must go to newcomer Andrei, who throws herself body and soul into depicting this “magical” girl – for some she’s an enchantress, for others a witch – whose fragility is the very thing that makes her immune to the world’s horrors.

Illusion was produced by Fandango in league with Rai Cinema, in co-production with Tarantula Belgique. Fandango are also handling world sales.

(Translated from Italian)