Maria Vera Genchi and Francesca Demirgian October 19, 2025 8:00 pm

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Stefano Lodovichi brings to the Rome Film Festival the story of Antonio Chichiarelli, known as Tony della Duchessa, an artist and forger who lived in Rome between the 70s and 80s.

Pietro Castellitto plays "the forger". “Adventurous Gascon, imperfect, at times boyish and unresolved, he has little to do with the little and mysterious information we have received about his real alter ego,” says the director.

Toni arrives in Rome from the province, in 1976, and thanks to the meeting with Donata, played by Giulia Michelini, a gallery owner who has made her way from the suburbs to the good Rome, he begins to create fakes and understand without too much resistance - that if he wants to be successful, that is the direction he will have to follow. But Il Falsario is also the story of three friends who, in an uncertain season in Italy, reach the capital: Fabione (Pierluigi Gigante), Vittorio (Andrea Arcangeli) and Toni. In the role of the Tailor - the character who pulls the strings from behind - there is, however, Claudio Santamaria.

The Rome of the Forger

"Rome in this story is a port and a storm. It attracts and ensnares you with its sirens, with the history that marks the faces of those who have lived there for generations, on the walls with dusty plaster, touched by the warm light of the sunsets. It is the dirty Rome where drunk musicians play until dawn, the Rome where everything flows, slow and merciless. It is the Rome that attracts and holds you forever, that enchants you and envelops. It is the Rome of artists and those killed in the streets. And it is also the Rome of the local underworld, in which Balbo (Edoardo Pesce) moves, a criminal who, in his own way, cannot help but be loved", says Stefano Lodovichi.