Director: Ferzan Özpetek
A chance meeting in a Rome movie theater sets off a love story that spans decades in Ferzan Özpetek's "Nuovo Olimpo" (2023).
What is Nuovo Olimpo about?
Rome in the 1970s: two young men, Enea and Pietro, cross paths by coincidence inside a crowded cinema and something immediately clicks between them. What starts as a fleeting connection grows into a romance neither expects, unfolding against the backdrop of a city and an era where such a relationship carries its own risks and complications. Circumstances beyond their control eventually separate the pair, and the film follows the ripple effects of that separation across the years that follow — how a single encounter can shape the rest of two lives even after the people involved have gone their own ways. Told with warmth rather than melodrama, the story treats memory and missed timing as forces just as powerful as choice.
Cast & crew
Damiano Gavino and Andrea Di Luigi play Enea and Pietro, the two men whose bond drives the film, with Luisa Ranieri, Greta Scarano, and Aurora Giovinazzo featured in key supporting roles that widen the story beyond the central couple across its multi-decade timeline.
Context & significance
Director Ferzan Özpetek, known for character-driven Italian dramas that explore identity and desire with restraint, sets "Nuovo Olimpo" against a real Roman cinema of the same name, using the physical space of the theater as a recurring anchor point for a story that otherwise jumps across different periods. The film premiered in 2023 and holds a notably strong 7.2 average audience rating. Özpetek's filmography frequently returns to Rome as both setting and character in its own right, and this project continues that pattern by treating the city's changing decades as a quiet backdrop to a very personal story, letting fashion, music, and streets shift subtly to mark the passage of time.
Where & how to watch
"Nuovo Olimpo" streams on K-Time with a free account login, and the platform's Farsi-language interface makes browsing and playback easy for Persian-speaking viewers. Both a Persian dub and Persian subtitles are available, so you can watch in whichever format suits you.