Venezia 76: Italian Films Explore Peripheries on Day Two

The second day of the 76th Venice Film Festival was marked by extreme heat at the Lido, with temperatures creating a stark contrast to the air-conditioned screening rooms. Two Italian films premiered, both set in peripheral urban areas. In the Orizzonti section, Carlo Sironi's debut feature "Sole" follows a Polish surrogate mother and her guardian in a bleak Roman suburb. The film's static cinematography and slow pace are broken only by the baby's cries. In the main competition, Mario Martone's "Il Sindaco del Rione Sanità" adapts Eduardo De Filippo's play, starring Francesco Di Leva as Antonio Barracano, a local mediator in Naples' Rione Sanità. The film retains a theatrical feel with interior settings and dialogue-heavy scenes, though it updates the story to the present day and opens with a tribute to Neapolitan street art.