Filming has wrapped on Il sopravvissuto, Claudio Cupellini’s new film, which is based on Antonio Scurati’s homonymous novel, which was itself loosely inspired by the Columbine High School massacre and which went on to win the Campiello Prize in 2005. The movie’s screenplay was penned by Giacomo Bendotti in league with the director and Scurati himself.

Shot between the Veneto region and Rome, the film is toplined by Valerio Mastandrea, who’s the proud owner of four David di Donatello awards thanks to The First Beautiful Thing, Balancing Act, Long Live Freedom and Fiore, and who led the cast of Five Seconds last year. Mastandrea is joined by young newcomer Cesare Hary, who starred in Francesca Scorsese’s TV series The Saints 2, Diego Ribon (Elisa, Dry), Alma Noce (The Art of Joy), Fabrizio Ferracane (thrice nominated at the Davids thanks to Black Souls, The Traitor and The Inner Cage), and Kseniya Rappoport (awarded a David for The Unknown Woman and recently seen in The Order of Time).

The protagonist of the story is Andrea Marescalchi, a passionate and attentive high school teacher who’s the sole survivor of a massacre carried out by his most challenging and beloved student Vitaliano on the day of the final exam. As the last remaining member of the exam board, Mr Marescalchi finds himself seeking out the reasons behind that unjustifiable, irreversible act and wondering whether, by allowing him to live, Vitaliano really did save him or simply condemn him to wonder why he survived.

Il sopravvissuto is the Veneto-born filmmaker’s fifth feature after his 2007 debut Lezioni di Cioccolato; A Quiet Life in 2010, which was nominated for the Best Film David and which saw actor Toni Servillo triumph in Rome and Bastia; Alaska in 2015, and The Land of the Sons, which premiered in competition in Karlovy Vary in 2020.

The film’s cinematography is entrusted to Gergely Poharnok, who also worked with Cupellini on his previous three films, alongside editor Giuseppe Trepiccione. Set design comes courtesy of Daniele Frabetti, costumes are by Mariano Tufano and sound by Daniele De Angelis.

Il sopravvissuto is being produced by Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima and Carlotta Calori on behalf of Indigo Film and Viola Prestieri for HT Film, in league with Damocle (the young production company created by Mastandrea), comic book author Zerocalcare, Francesco Tatò, Oscar Glioti, and Vision Distribution. The film will also be distributed in Italy and abroad by the latter.