Nostalgia (2023)

Returning to his home town of Naples after forty years living in Egypt, Felice (a brilliantly low key Pierfrancesco Favino) befriends a local priest Don Luigi, who is a hugely important figure in the city, fighting the Camorra and trying to give people a better future. We see brief flashbacks to Felice’s childhood as he races round back alleys of Naples on a scooter with his best friend, who we soon realise is key to Felice’s departure from the city forty years previously.

Mario Martone’s film works so well because of its slow pace; despite the fact the Camorra are key to this tale this isn’t a gangster movie in any traditional sense of the genre, rather, a thoughtful portrayal of a city that in some ways is a country and law unto itself. Comparisons can be drawn between Nostalgia and Paolo Sorrentino’s The Hand of God (2021); although Martone’s depiction of Naples is very different from Sorrentino’s, both deal with the idea of nostalgia and indeed the self. Naples is gorgeously shot here, and as Felice slowly slides into the world of the Camorra to address the issue that forced him to leave in the first place, the beautiful imagery of Naples as a city fails to slide with him.

Although the ending to the film can be telegraphed fairly easily, spending two hours with Felice as he explores his past and once more feels the draw of his home town despite the danger he may be in, is a sumptuous and often touching experience, pulling you into the city’s beauty as well as its dangerous underbelly as you inhale the allurement of Martone’s film. 8.0/10