Nominated for the David di Donatello Award for Best Adaptation in 2022 and 2025 for Una Femmina - The Code of Silence [+leggi anche:
trailer
intervista: Francesco Costabile
scheda film] (Berlinale Panorama 2022) and Familia [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film] (Orizzonti Best Actor Award at Venice in 2024, and Italian submission for the 2026 Oscar for Best International Feature Film) by Francesco Costabile, Adriano Chiarelli also collaborated on the screenplay for Pure Hearts [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Roberto De Paolis
scheda film] by Roberto De Paolis (Directors' Fortnight 2017), among others. We met him at the 47th Montpellier Film Festival, where he pitched his first feature film project as a filmmaker, Le piranha, at the Cinemed Meetings Development Fund (read the report).

Cineuropa: What was your background in the film industry before you got involved in the Le piranha project?
Adriano Chiarelli: I started in 2001 as assistant director on One Man Up [+leggi anche:
trailer
scheda film], Paolo Sorrentino's first feature film, and I worked with the same team on his subsequent films, right up to The Family Friend. Then we all went our separate ways, and I decided to devote myself to writing screenplays and books. Deep down, I always intended to become a director, but circumstances led me to focus on writing, even though over time I shot some small projects, mainly documentaries, which allowed me to practise with cameras. But now, as the films I wrote the screenplays for have been well received at the Berlin and Venice film festivals, and Familia is representing Italy in the race for the next Oscar for Best International Feature Film, this is helping me to launch myself as a feature film director, among other things to benefit from public funding, etc. But I also continue to work as a screenwriter on fiction programmes for Rai and I also teach, notably at the Scuola Nazionale di Cinema.

What is Le piranha about?
Broadly speaking, it is the story of a crew of fishermen who find themselves without a boat because their shipowner has gone bankrupt due to the economic crisis. So they remain ashore, adrift. Their lives fall apart a little, but without giving in to self-pity or whining, they find ways to resist and move forward with the goal of regaining their place in the world, the world of fishermen, and recovering the boat that was sold at auction for a reason that we discover later in the film through a little twist. The story is an adaptation of a novel that I am currently finishing, and I plan to release the film and the book (which will be my fourth) together.

Where do you plan to shoot the film?
On the Adriatic coast, in the Marche region, between San Benedetto del Tronto and Porto San Giorgio. The story takes place in the years 2008-2010, when the fishing fleet in this area, which was the second largest in Europe, was gradually dismantled.

What will be the tone of the film?
One of my role models is Ken Loach, but on his lighter, bittersweet side, as in The Angels' Share [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
intervista: Ken Loach
scheda film] and The Old Oak [+leggi anche:
recensione
trailer
scheda film]. Le piranha is a drama, but tinged with comedy, because the characters are bound by fate but they don't give up, so they go through a series of crises and paradoxical situations. It is also an open homage to Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. But these are obviously unique and inimitable role models. All this also stems from my love for the sea, for fishing, ports and the maritime atmosphere. San Benedetto del Tronto is nicknamed “Little Marseille” and the region is home to a very diverse population, for better or for worse.

How is the writing coming along?
I have a first draft. If everything goes well with the financing, I would like to start filming in late 2026 or early 2027.

How did Luca Cabriolu and Andrea Di Blasio's company Ombre Rosse Film Production get involved in the project?
We’ve known each other well for a long time. We had already tried working together on short films and realised that we had good chemistry, winning an award here and securing funding there. They immediately showed great confidence in this project and are supporting me very attentively.