Filming is underway in Rome on La città dei vivi, a movie loosely based on Nicola Lagioia’s bestselling novel of the same name (published by Giulio Einaudi) which won the Strega Prize. The feature is directed by Edoardo Gabbriellini (who gave us B.B. and the Cormorant, selected as Cannes’ closing film, The Landlords, which competed in Locarno, and Holiday, which screened in Toronto) and the screenplay is penned by Damiano and Fabio D'Innocenzo (directors of Bad Tales, awarded the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay in Berlin, America Latina, which competed in Venice, and the Dostoyevsky series) who are also executively producing the project.

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The film is produced by Roberto Proia for Eagle Pictures, Olivia Musini for Cinemaundici and Maurizio Piazza and Andrea Calbucci of Lungta Film, with support from HBO Max. The cast stars Valerio Mastandrea (the proud owner of 4 David di Donatello awards and recently seen in Feeling Better, which he directed, and Five Seconds) alongside fellow protagonist Emanuele Maria Di Stefano (of The Catholic School and Dry, and recently awarded the David for Best Italian Newcomer), Gaia Merlonghi, Simona Senzacqua (The Legionnaire) and Roberta Mattei (the winner of the David di Donatello for Best Supporting Actress thanks to her part in Italian Race).

La città dei vivi looks back on the tragic case of Luca Varani, the twenty-three-year-old originally from Sarajevo who was brutally killed in Rome on the night of 4 - 5 March 2016 by two thirty-somethings called Manuel Foffo and Marco Prato, following a drug- and alcohol-fuelled party which lasted 3 days. Based on the novel and the news report which inspired the book, the screenplay takes this tragedy as its narrative base in order to explore a generation on the edge, examining the social, cultural and emotional dynamics which might have led these two young men to commit this act of unfathomable violence, shifting our gaze from the event itself to its potential root causes.

Luca is 23 years old. He lives with a family who have adopted him and who love him. He goes around between the city outskirts and the centre with his friends, and he has a girlfriend with whom he’s in a new yet important relationship. Luca is trying to find his way at a time when everything still feels possible but also already lost, and this search sees him leading a double life. One night, after a seemingly random encounter, Luca’s life is cut short by way of blind and senseless violence.

“This film”, Edoardo Gabbriellini explains, “takes a kind-hearted approach to observe a boy who’s not yet a man, through the cracks and excesses of his weaknesses and his uncertain dreams”. According to Nicola Lagioia: "The story about the murder of Luca Varani is delicate and says a lot about the difficult times we’re living in. Edoardo Gabbriellini has the sensitivity and vision required to tell this story through film in the best possible way".

“When it came to La città dei vivi”, the producers reveal, “we decided to focus on a news story which left a deep impression on our nation’s collective conscience, trying to tackle it through the lens of social cinema and with much needed sensitivity and responsibility, going beyond the news story itself to understand what it says about the present. The film tries to examine how evil can take root, not so much from a person’s exceptional nature or monstrousness but from emptiness, isolation and an inability to recognise the value of life”. They further announced that: “As with The Boy With Pink Pants and 40 secondi, the film’s release will coincide with a series of screenings and meetings in schools and universities with a view to creating spaces in which young people can talk about the delicate themes raised by the film".

Shooting on La città dei vivi will take place in Rome for a total period of six weeks. The film will be distributed in Italian cinemas in autumn 2026, courtesy of Eagle Pictures.