Directed and written by Paolo Sorrentino, La Grazia marks the seventh collaboration between the filmmaker and Toni Servillo, in a political and intimate drama presented at the opening of the 2025 Venice Film Festival. Released in French theaters on January 28, 2026, the film also stars Anna Ferzetti and Orlando Cinque. Servillo won the Volpi Cup for Best Actor, confirmed by the Venice Biennale.
Mariano De Santis, President of the Italian Republic, is ending his term in office in a climate fraught with moral dilemmas. This Catholic lawyer, a widower and a loner, must rule on two requests for clemency concerning people who killed their spouses in unusual circumstances. As the end of his term approaches, these decisions take on decisive public significance, while revealing an inner struggle marked by the weight of grief and institutional responsibility.
The character also sees the specter of a possible past betrayal resurface, linked to his missing wife, which cracks his relationship with power and forgiveness. This intimate conflict fuels a narrative where justice, faith, and memory intersect. Without referring to real political figures, as specified by the production, the film develops a meditation on what we leave behind when authority declines.
Shot in Italy, La Grazia is in keeping with the aesthetic style of Paolo Sorrentino's cinema, characterized by sophisticated visual composition, precise work on institutional spaces, and the marked introspection of its protagonists. Presented out of competition for the opening of the Mostra, the film was accompanied by critical acclaim highlighting Toni Servillo's performance and the meditative dimension of the work.
The narrative adopts a contemplative pace, where the exercise of power is approached less from the angle of satire—as in Il Divo or La Grande Bellezza —than from that of an intimate examination of individual responsibility. The target audience is fans of arthouse dramas focused on the state of mind of a character at the end of their journey, reminiscent of certain questions raised in The Young Pope, while distinguishing itself with a strictly political and secular setting.
La Grazia
Film | 2026
Release date in theaters: January 28, 2026
Drama, Romance | Runtime: 2h11
Directed by Paolo Sorrentino | Starring Toni Servillo, Anna Ferzetti, Orlando Cinque
Original title: La Grazia
Country: Italy
With this new feature film, Paolo Sorrentino continues his exploration of public figures confronted with loneliness and the weight of the past. La Grazia offers an introspective look at justice, forgiveness, and the end of a cycle, carried by precise direction and a central actor at the heart of the film.
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