Filming for The Big Fake took place primarily in Rome, where the crew of 105 worked for eight weeks (February 10 - April 4, 2025). Rome was a crucial location in creating the vintage setting, key to the story of Toni Chichiarelli (Pietro Castellitto), artist and forger, who lived there in the 1970s and 1980s. He came to the Eternal City in 1976 from the Italian hinterland, and thanks to his encounter with gallery owner Donata (Giulia Michelini), who rose from the working-class suburbs to join Rome's elite, became one of the greatest forgers ever.
The images of 1970s Rome is of a city full of facets, with great adventurers, great vitality and wealth; a Rome of artists and beauty, animated by fervent and intense artistic activity. It is also a dirty city where drunken musicians play until dawn and everything flows slowly and mercilessly; a capital of street killings and the local underworld, the perfect stage for a criminal like Balbo (Edoardo Pesce), and setting for history and those pulling the strings unseen, like the Tailor (Claudio Santamaria), representative of the rogue secret services of the time.
In addition to Rome, locations in Lazio included various squares and streets in the historic centre of Frascati (September 1 - 12, 2025).
Filming for The Big Fake took place primarily in Rome, where the crew of 105 worked for eight weeks (February 10 - April 4, 2025). Rome was a crucial location in creating the vintage setting, key to the story of Toni Chichiarelli (Pietro Castellitto), artist and forger, who lived there in the 1970s and 1980s. He came to the Eternal City in 1976 from the Italian hinterland, and thanks to his encounter with gallery owner Donata (Giulia Michelini), who rose from the working-class suburbs to join Rome's elite, became one of the greatest forgers ever.
The images of 1970s Rome is of a city full of facets, with great adventurers, great vitality and wealth; a Rome of artists and beauty, animated by fervent and intense artistic activity. It is also a dirty city where drunken musicians play until dawn and everything flows slowly and mercilessly; a capital of street killings and the local underworld, the perfect stage for a criminal like Balbo (Edoardo Pesce), and setting for history and those pulling the strings unseen, like the Tailor (Claudio Santamaria), representative of the rogue secret services of the time.
In addition to Rome, locations in Lazio included various squares and streets in the historic centre of Frascati (September 1 - 12, 2025).
Copyright: Lucia Iuorio/Netflix
Pietro Castellitto
Copyright: Lucia Iuorio/Netflix
Pietro Castellitto
Copyright: Lucia Iuorio/Netflix
Edoardo Pesce
Copyright: Lucia Iuorio/Netflix
Pietro Castellitto
Copyright: Lucia Iuorio/Netflix
Copyright: Lucia Iuorio/Netflix
Pietro Castellitto
Copyright: Lucia Iuorio/Netflix
Rome, 1970s. Toni arrives in the city with only his talent for painting and the dream of becoming a great artist. A hunger for life, destiny, and history conspire to make him the greatest forger ever and a central figure in one of Italy’s most enigmatic mysteries.
