The locations for Nessun dolore, the new film by Gianni Amelio presented out of competition at Venice 83 and set to hit cinemas on September 24, 2026, have an ambivalent nature: while they reveal how cities—especially the large ones—can remain utterly indifferent to the fates of their residents, they also remind us that there are places where it’s hard not to feel at home. The film, featuring Alessandro Borghi, Valeria Golino, and Valerio Mastandrea among others, was shot between Rome and Orvieto: let’s discover where.
What it’s about
Davide, the protagonist, earns his living selling second-hand books from a kiosk in a central square in Rome. One day, abruptly, a baby from North Africa materializes in front of his stall and from that moment starts to follow him, refusing to leave. After a road accident forces him to accompany the child to the emergency room, Davide sinks into a spiral of remorse and guilt. It’s along the hospital corridors that he meets Aminah: a frightened adolescent who is evidently pregnant, just arrived on a boat from Algeria, whom he ends up offering shelter to.
From that moment, every day, when he returns home from work, Davide finds someone new waiting for him: people who live on the streets without a roof, something to eat, or someone to take care of them. Essentially unable to push back, he will soon have to face a complaint from the building’s residents but, above all, a series of conflicting emotions.
Where the film was shot
The new film by Gianni Amelio, with Alessandro Borghi, Valeria Golino, and Valerio Mastandrea, was shot, as mentioned, between Rome and Orvieto.
Rome
In the capital, among the locations for Nessun dolore, it is easy to recognize the Prati district with its bourgeois buildings, the elegant avenues lined with trees and fashionable boutiques, and the Vatican Walls with the profiles of Piazza San Pietro in the background.
It is at Piazza Risorgimento, one of the city’s main hubs, which during the last Jubilee underwent a radical redevelopment that returned it to Romans as a place to stroll or stop for an ice cream, where Davide’s bookstore is located.
In some scenes, especially at the start of the film, the protagonist is seen wandering through the chaotic maze of streets in the Esquilino district: it is here, near Termini Station, along streets such as Via Giolitti, known for housing predominantly foreign communities, that Davide desperately seeks information or someone who knows the child who wandered into his shop.
Departing from central Rome, other sequences, mostly panoramic and transitional, were filmed on the Ostia coast.
Orvieto
If Orvieto is among the locations where Nessun dolore was shot, it is primarily for narrative reasons: it is from this Umbrian town, famous for its Duomo, the Torre del Moro, the Pozzo di San Patrizio, and its evocative position on a tufaceous cliff, that the protagonist played by Alessandro Borghi originates.
Here the filming mainly involved Piazza Raneri and the city’s entrance and Piazza d’Armi with the former Caserma Piave clearly recognizable on screen.
