A man with a troubled past who returns to his home town.
Naples. Present day. 50-something businessman Felice Lasco (Favino) returns from the Middle East to visit his ageing mother (Aurora Quattrocchi). Wandering the streets, Felice rediscovers the city, it’s codes and rituals, and memories that still haunt him.
Despite local priest Don Luigi’s (Francesco Di Leva) advice to leave his past behind, he seeks out his boyhood friend Oreste (Happy as Lazzaro's Tommaso Ragno), now a feared local mobster…
Beautifully shot and superbly realised, Nostalgia gradually and subtly reveals itself as the parable of a man and a city teetering between redemption and damnation. Vibrantly capturing the pulsing heart of southern Italy’s biggest city, it’s a deeply felt exploration of the complexity of homecoming.
Critics Reviews:
- “Mario Martone’s beautifully shot and superbly composed film teeters on the edge of something special. And if it doesn’t quite achieve that, settling in the end for something more generically crime-oriented, it’s still very good.” – Peter Bradshaw (Guardian)
- “If yielding to nostalgia often makes people recall a more affectionate and wistful version of what actually was, this stirring, evocative film likely will leave viewers haunted by what might have been.” – Gary Goldstein (Los Angeles Times)
- “The film… is far from perfect, but it does benefit from “The Traitor” star Pierfrancesco Favino’s terrific lead performance as a man who learns the hard way that there’s no going home again.” – Ben Croll (TheWrap)