Where it was filmed 'Nostalgia'

Awareness lies in nostalgia. Those who are never lost, never have it
Pier Paolo Pasolini

Faithful to the novel by Ermanno Rea on which it is based, Nostalgia is set in Naples, in the rione Sanità where Felice (Pierfrancesco Favino) was born and raised. Little has changed there in the 40 years that have passed since he built himself a new life in the Middle East: the labyrinth of narrow, bustling alleys with dimly lit houses open onto the street (“i bassi”), staircases and grey squares broken up by flashes of colour (Tono Cruz’s mural on the side of a building which features Totò and Peppino in a scene from La banda degli onesti) has many similarities with Cairo. Felice rediscovers many reference points, with a mix of marvel, astonishment and nostalgia: old porta San Gennaro, the market in borgo Vergini, vico Lammatari, via Sanità, as he explores further afield, towards salita Capodimonte. One scene features the Fontanelle cemetary, where the Neapolitans once adopted the anonymous skulls, known as “anime pezzentelle".

At his mother’s funeral, Felice meets Don Luigi (Francesco Di Leva), a charismatic priest at the Basilica di Santa Maria della Sanità, known in the area as San Vincenzo alla Sanità.  Many young people cluster around the priest – the only alternative in the neighbourhood to the criminal organization headed by Oreste 'o malomm Spasiano – practising boxing, playing music and dreaming of a new life. Among them is Adele, who takes Felice to the catacombs of San Gennaro and to an ancient fresco of an African woman opposite San Gaudioso.

Oreste (Tommaso Ragno), today the neighbourhood boss, and Felice were once inseparable, they shared many adventures which we see in multiple flashbacks that demonstrate how the neighbourhood has not changed since the time they rode a motorbike around the tondo di Capodimonte in the rione Stella, heading for the Sanità bridge and then re-emerging in the neighbourhood.

Other locations include the National Library of Naples “Vittorio Emanuele III” – Emeroteca, the headquarters in San Giovanni a Teduccio of the Università degli Studi di Napoli “Federico II” (used as a hospital), plus Castel Volturno, in the province of Caserta. The production illuminated the area around the Basilica dell'Incoronata Madre del Buon Consiglio, again in Capodimonte.