Italian director Francesca Archibugi (“La Storia,” “The Hummingbird”) will direct sex-trafficking drama “Illusion” toplining Jasmine Trinca (“La Storia,” “Supersex”) as an intrepid magistrate investigating a prostitution ring with links to the European parliament.
Shooting is set to start next month in central Italy on the roughly $8 million film that will reunite Archibugi with Trinca who played the lead in the director’s feminist fascist-era saga “La Storia” that was Italy’s biggest TV event of 2023. Italy’s Fandango is co-producing “Illusion” with RAI Cinema and Belgium’s Tarantula.
Fandango sales is launching pre-sales on “Illusion” at the European Film Market.
Trinca (pictured) is an A-list Italian actor who was on the Cannes jury in 2023. In “Illusion” she will play judge Cristina Camponeschi who pursues a prostitution ring with ties to Eastern Europe and to the European Parliament. The investigation kicks off after a 16-year-old named Rosa Lazar “dressed like a Dior supermodel,” as the synopsis puts it, is found almost dead in a ditch on the outskirts of Perugia, Italy.
The rest of the “Illusion” cast comprises Michele Riondino (“Young Montalbano”) as a psychologist; Angelina Andrei as Rosa Lazar; and Vittoria Puccini (“Elisa di Rivombrosa”).
Archibugi wrote the screenplay with Italian scribe Francesco Piccolo (“My Brilliant Friend”).
“It’s the story of the desperate vitality of people who struggle to be in the world,” Archibugi said in her director’s statement. “Rosa’s world is first of all Romania; reassuring but too miserable. Then there are Brussels and Strasbourg, providing the contrast between wealth and power and the toxic aspect of her life. And then Perugia: cold, windy, ancient, and, finally, enveloping and leading to salvation,”the director added.
Besides “La Storia,” Archibugi’s most recent feature film is “The Hummingbird” starring Pierfrancesco Favino and Bérénice Bejo, that launched from Toronto in 2023 and sold widely via Fandango Sales.
