Where it was filmed 'Dry'

Paolo Virzì directs this film, set in Rome in a not-too-distant future. After three years of no rain, the Eternal City – parched, almost deserted and razed by the sun – reflects its terrified, angry, arid community, dying of thirst and sleeplessness and racked by drought that is also demonstrated by a lack of emotions and feelings.

We see a capital city whose main waterway, the Tiber river, now no longer exists. There is only the riverbed to mark its past, crossed by numerous bridges: which include ponte Sant’Angelo and ponte Vittorio Emanuele, with piazza San Pietro and via della Conciliazione clearly seen in the panoramic shots of the dry river; ponte dell’Industria in the heart of the Ostiense neighbourhood with the Gazometro close by; ponte della Musica; ponte Duca d’Aosta onlungotevere Flaminio, crossed by a sports car at top speed.

Rome is shown in full, providing space to feature a range of backgrounds for the various characters. In addition to Lungotevere, the road flanking the now non-existent city river, are other iconic sights of the city: the Colosseum and the fora, whose thousands of years of history have defied all manner of weather and man, piazza dei Santi Luca e Martina, piazza di Spagna and Trinità dei Monti, piazza del Popolo and via Veneto, all offering reminders of past splendour and beauty that, despite everything, still does not fade. Loris (Valerio Mastandrea) was once the President’s chauffeur, now he ferries tourists and other – real and imaginary – characters in his dusty car across the city.

In a city where social differences are becoming even more acute, there are those who don’t lose hope – in the courtyard of the National Etruscan Museum of Villa Giulia an orchestra holds charity concerts of Baroque music, with the slogan “Rome will survive” – and those who exploit the desperation of the city’s residents. While water is rationed for most people, the wealthy appear not to suffer.

The highly-desired Fontedoro Thermarium e Spa and the terrace of Valentina (Monica Bellucci) both have perfectly functioning pools/jacuzzis: the two locations are different corners of the Villa Agrippina Gran Hotel Meliá, hotel in via del Gianicolo 3 (some interiors of Fontedoro were shot in Hotel Palazzo Naiadi in piazza della Repubblica 47). Raffaella (Emanuela Fanelli) has the task of convincing people that her family’s resort does not use public water: convinced she can solve the water issue, she tries to involve institutions and stops in piazza del Campidoglio, before heading to the Wacht Club Tevere at Porto Romano (Fiumicino) to leave her husband a “little something”.

Sara (Claudia Pandolfi) and Luca (Vinicio Marchioni) live in an apartment in via della Frezza behind via del Corso; Hospital San Raffaele in Velletri provided the interiors for her medical work; the location for his lawyer’s studio was the Associazione nazionale Mutilati e Invalidi di Guerra, in piazza Adriana 3.

Some, like Alfredo (Tommaso Ragno), become influencers: he dispenses advice on saving water from his apartment in piazza Ragusa; we discover that he was previously an actor when he is offered a walk-on part at the teatro India situated on lungotevere Vittorio Gassman 1. Others, like Antonio (Silvio Orlando), prefer to live behind the protection of prison walls (Rebibbia) rather than return to a city that they no longer recognise.