Enrico Vanzina presents giallo La sera a Roma at Rome Film Festival, with Massimo Ghini

A giallo set in Rome

La sera a Roma was presented on 23 October 2026 in the Grand Public section of the 21st Rome Film Festival (Festa del Cinema di Roma), according to AGI. Directed by Enrico Vanzina, the film is adapted from his 2018 novel published by Mondadori. Massimo Ghini stars as Federico, a journalist and screenwriter drawn into a murder case. ANSA describes the setting as an elegant and decadent Rome, moving through aristocratic salons, newsrooms, central trattorias and the film world. Unicorn will release it in cinemas in collaboration with Medusa, ANSA reported, but the sources give no release date.

The plot

A well-known broker in Roman finance, played by Luca Ward, asks Federico to meet Domenico Greco, a young man who wants to break into the film industry. Federico invites him to his home, and a few hours later the young man is killed. Il Giornale reports that he was found with two gunshot wounds. Because Federico was among the last people to see him alive, he is quickly drawn into the investigation. Commissioner Margiotta, played by Carlo Buccirosso, leads the probe, while Maselli, a crime reporter played by Ricky Memphis, helps unravel the case. Federico is married to a French intellectual and has an affair with Claudia, a pilates teacher linked to the victim, played by Rocio Muñoz Morales. He also shares a complicated friendship with Giulia, a Roman princess played by Martina Stella.

Vanzina on his maturity work

In his introduction at the festival, Vanzina called the film a bold personal statement and described it in these words:

This is my latest work, and I will say something a little presumptuous, even silly: it is my mature film, in expressive and cinematic terms.

He told AGI that he thinks he made a good film and that the story personally touches him because he lives in central Rome and knows the aristocratic world the film depicts.

I think I made a good film. It is the work of my maturity, a film that speaks of many things.

Vanzina named Luigi Comencini's La donna della domenica as a model and said the film is a giallo take on The Great Beauty. He also argued that journalists must publish the truth, a theme that runs through the story.

Cast and reception

Massimo Ghini explained his interest in the genre:

I really liked the idea of tackling a genre theme, like the giallo, but not in a repetitive or predictable way.

Il Messaggero reported strong applause at the Auditorium Parco della Musica, where Salvo Nastasi, president of the Fondazione Cinema per Roma, and festival director Paola Malanga welcomed guests. Among those in attendance were Francesco Gaetano Caltagirone, Francesco Rutelli, Paolo del Brocco of Raicinema and Giampaolo Letta of Medusa. Ghini told AGI that Federico is not a Sherlock Holmes figure but a music journalist who moves among Roman nobility and finds himself caught in a story far bigger than he is. The film's ensemble also includes Martina Stella, Rocio Muñoz Morales, Ricky Memphis, Nicoletta Romanoff and Florence Nicolas.