Director: Paolo Sorrentino
Paolo Sorrentino turns the city of Naples into a living character in Parthenope, a 2024 fantasy drama that follows one woman across decades of beauty, loss, and myth.
What is Parthenope about?
Named after the siren said to have founded Naples, Parthenope grows up along the Bay of Naples in the summer of 1950 and drifts through the following decades as friends marry, careers rise and fall, and the city itself seems to watch her the way she watches it. Celeste Dalla Porta plays the title role as a young woman whose beauty draws attention from every direction, while Stefania Sandrelli appears as an older version of the same character looking back on a life that never quite settled into one shape. Gary Oldman turns up as an American writer living in self-imposed exile, one of several figures who orbit Parthenope without ever fully reaching her. The film moves in loose, sun-drenched chapters rather than a tight plot, letting mood and place carry scenes that skip forward in time without warning. Naples itself, its sea, its ruins, its noise, functions almost as a second lead, and Sorrentino's camera lingers on it the way it lingers on his heroine.
Cast & crew
Celeste Dalla Porta anchors the film in her breakout leading role, with Stefania Sandrelli providing the later-life counterpoint. Gary Oldman, Silvio Orlando, Luisa Ranieri, and Isabella Ferrari round out a cast that moves through Parthenope's orbit across the decades.
Context & significance
Parthenope arrives from director Paolo Sorrentino, the filmmaker behind The Great Beauty and The Hand of God, both of which share this film's fascination with memory, aging, and Italian coastal life. Produced as a France-Italy co-production and released in 2024, it continues Sorrentino's run of visually driven, character-focused dramas built around a single unforgettable setting.
Where & how to watch
Parthenope is available to stream on K-Time with Persian dubbing and Persian subtitles, alongside its original Italian and English dialogue. A free K-Time account is all that is needed to watch; the film's page itself can be read without logging in, and the interface is built with Farsi speakers in the diaspora in mind.