Coming to Italian theaters as a special event for three days only,Dec. 1, 2 and 3, is the docu-film Caravaggio in Rome. The Journey of the Jubilee, directed by Giovanni Piscaglia on a subject by Didi Gnocchi, with screenplay by Eleonora Angius and narration by actor Mario Cordova. Produced by 3D Produzioni and Nexo Studios, in partnership with Sky and in collaboration with Avvenire and Gallerie d’Italia - Intesa Sanpaolo, the documentary is made with the contribution of the Ministry of Culture’s Fund for the Development of Investments in Cinema and Audiovisual (MIC).
Distributed by Nexo Studios, the docu-film is part of the calendar of the 2025 season of La Grande Arte al Cinema, the project that brings the history and protagonists of world art to the big screen. Pre-sales will open Nov. 11, while the list of participating theaters will be available at nexostudios.it.
Caravaggio in Rome. The Jubilee Journey offers a journey into the spiritual dimension of Caravaggio in Jubilee Rome. The film starts in contemporary Rome, that of the pilgrims who will flock to the city on the occasion of Jubilee 2025, and then goes back four centuries to the capital of the 17th century, where Michelangelo Merisi experienced his rise and fall.
Director Giovanni Piscaglia guides the viewer through a narrative that weaves together archival images, original footage, scholarly interventions and evocative moments, restoring an intimate and tormented portrait of the celebrated artist.
As art historian Claudio Strinati explains, “Caravaggio is a painter of feeling and the Jubilee is feeling, not reasoning.” A phrase that encapsulates the meaning of the documentary: the link between the artist and the spiritual dimension of the eternal city. It was precisely during the Holy Year of 1600, called by Pope Clement VIII, that Caravaggio found his consecration, producing two works: The Vocation of St. Matthew and The Martyrdom of St. Matthew. With these canvases, the painter abandoned profane, everyday subjects to turn his gaze to the sacred, shaping a vision of the divine never seen before. In his compositions, light becomes the voice of grace, while the faces of sinners and the poor are transformed into saints and apostles.
The documentary follows the thread of this transformation, showing how, after his death sentence and exile, Caravaggio’s painting became even more dramatic and somber. His last years were dominated by a desire for forgiveness and a sense of guilt: in his paintings, light no longer saves, but illuminates human frailty. With his appeals for forgiveness going unheeded, Caravaggio died as a sinner, on his way to Rome, seeking a grace he could never obtain.
The film renders this journey as an inner pilgrimage, a path that combines art, faith and perdition. Among the symbolic places in the story emerge the churches and streets of Rome where the artist left his mark.
Caravaggio in Rome alternates contemporary footage of the city and works with interviews with art historians, theologians, artists and intellectuals, building a choral mosaic of voices that restores the complexity of an absolute genius. Contributors include Francesca Cappelletti, director of the Galleria Borghese in Rome; Franco Cardini, historian and medievalist; Antonio Ernesto Denunzio, deputy director of the Gallerie d’Italia in Naples; Jago, sculptor; Sister Maria Gloria Riva, foundress of the Monastery of the Perpetual Adorers of the SS. Sacramento in Pietrarubbia - San Marino; Monsignor Alberto Rocca, director of the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana in Milan; Marco Roncalli, essayist; Thomas Clement Salomon, director of the National Galleries of Ancient Art in Palazzo Barberini - Galleria Corsini; Antonella Scalessa of the State Archives of Rome; Claudio Strinati, art historian and popularizer; Maria Cristina Terzaghi, art historian; and Monsignor Timothy Verdon, director of the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence.
Their testimonies interweave history, theology and art, offering complementary perspectives on the mystery of Caravaggio, the significance of the Jubilee and the value of mercy in art and life. The film is not a traditional biography, but a dialogue between epochs and languages, in which the figure of the artist becomes a mirror of our time, between bewilderment and the desire for redemption.
The poetic tone of the narration, entrusted to the voice of Mario Cordova, accompanies the viewer on a journey between light and darkness, guilt and forgiveness, restoring the emotional power of Caravaggio’s painting. The music and photography help create a suspended atmosphere, in which the images of today’s pilgrims overlap with the steps of the 17th-century painter, as if in a continuous dialogue between past and present.
The documentary film marks one of the most anticipated moments of the 2025 season of Nexo Studios - La Grande Arte al Cinema, distributed exclusively in Italy, with media partners Radio Capital, Sky Arte and MYmovies, and in collaboration with Abbonamento Musei.
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| Caravaggio in Rome: the film about the restless genius comes to theaters for three days only |
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