Nostalgia
classified 12A SPlease note: This was screened in Feb 2023
A man with a hidden past returns home to Naples after decades away and is forced to face up to his former life.
Felice Lasco (Pierfrancesco Favino) has been absent from Naples for over 40 years but at the urging of his wife Arlette (Sofia Essaidi), he returns to his hometown to visit his ailing mother. His first encounters with his city are initially bittersweet, the city he knew has changed in many ways, but there remain places that remind him of his youth. As his familiarity with local neighbourhoods and the labyrinthine network of streets increases, and faces from the past begin to recognise him, his presence becomes more unsettling. Against the advice of a priest he once knew, he attempts to re-engage with an old school friend, now one of the city’s leading crime bosses, the consequences of this are a stark reminder of why he turned his back on this world so many years before.
Naples is as much a character of Nostalgia as Felice, each street portraying an aspect of its layered personality. It’s a place that director Martone knows thoroughly, this is his love letter to his hometown. It's fascinating portrait of this contrasting, contradictory city which pays homage to its beauty and brutality, and to its rhythms and sounds which accentuate the air of menace that simmers through everyday life.