Principal photography has begun in Naples on Italian director Ciro Visco’s feature Super Santos, which is freely adapted from the 2022 novel ‘Cuore Puro’ by Roberto Saviano, whose work previously sparked award-winning Gomorrah movie and TV series.
The film marks Visco’s theatrical directorial feature debut after assistant director credits on the Gomorrah and Doc: In Your Hands series and directing the 2025 Sky Original show Gangs of Milano – Le nuove storie del Blocco.
The story follows the lives of four boys united by a love of street soccer, growing up in the shadow of Naples infamous Camorra organized crime syndicate.
Saviano’s 2022 novel is an extension of a story he published in 2011 under the title of ‘Super Santos’, which in turn refers to the iconic Super Santos orange and black soccer ball, associated with Naples’ street soccer culture.
Saviano co-wrote the screenplay for the new feature with Stefano Piedimonte and Visco.
The cast includes Francesco Di Leva (The Leopard), Massimiliano Rossi (Portobello) Antonia Truppo (Portobello) and newcomers Thomas D’Angelo, Ciro Esposito, Ciro Dommarco and Danilo D’Ambrosio.
The film is produced by Carlo Degli Esposti, Nicola Serra, and Marco Grifoni for Mediawan subsidiary Palomar, and Massimiliano Orfei, Luisa Borella, and Davide Novelli for PiperFilm.
It is a Palomar and PiperFilm production, made and distributed with the support of the Fund for the Development of Investments in Cinema and Audiovisual of the Ministry of Culture – Directorate-General for Cinema and Audiovisual.
Filming will take place over six weeks in Naples. It gathers a high profile crew with Cristiano Di Nicola on board as the director of photography; Ludovica Ferrario as production designer; Mariano Tufano as costume designer and Marcello Saurino. as editor.
Super Santos will be distributed in theaters in Italy by PiperFilm and internationally by PiperPlay.
English (US) ·