The monochrome teaser, released online Monday and attached to Italian screenings of C’è Ancora Domani, opens with aerial shots skimming the slopes of Vesuvius before descending into the bustle of Naples’ Quartieri Spagnoli, a juxtaposition Rosi says captures “a city suspended between myth and emergency.” Festival programmers later confirmed the film will vie for the Golden Lion when Venice rolls out its red carpet on 27 August, marking the director’s first return to competition there since 2013.
Drawn from two years of vérité shooting, the feature traces how layers of history—Greek tunnels, Roman catacombs, Allied bomb shelters—shape contemporary life in districts that sit, literally, beneath the clouds of volcanic ash that have long shadowed the Bay of Naples. Produced by Rosi’s 21Uno Film alongside Donatella Palermo’s Stemal Entertainment and Rai Cinema, the project wrapped principal photography in April and is believed to be the director’s most ambitious logistical undertaking to date.
The Match Factory came aboard during Cannes in May and will launch worldwide sales on the Lido, eyeing awards‑season buyers in North America and key European territories. Italian theatrical rights remain with distributor 01, which is pencilling a late‑September domestic rollout timed to capitalise on festival buzz.
Running 118 minutes, the film reunites Rosi with cinematographer Diego Romero and composer Stefano Freni, whose sparse horn motifs underline what early viewers describe as a “haunting civic requiem.” It also represents a thematic homecoming for the Eritrea‑born, Rome‑raised filmmaker after recent forays into the Mediterranean migration crisis (Fire at Sea) and Middle‑East conflict (Notturno).
Rosi’s return comes freighted with expectation: he remains the only documentary director to have won both Berlin’s Golden Bear and Venice’s Golden Lion, accolades industry analysts say give Below the Clouds a plausible path toward another festival crown and a berth in the best‑documentary Oscar race.
