'Primo Viaggio' Wraps Shooting Across Three Countries, Heads to Venice Gap-Financing Market

A film about a young man's first trip beyond his Naples neighbourhood — one that happens to involve smuggling narcotics — has wrapped shooting across Naples, Malaga and Marseille. Primo Viaggio, which translates as "First Trip," completed its shoot in June and July of this year, Variety reported on 10 August 2026.

The film is written and directed by Alessandro Cassigoli and Casey Kauffman, a directing duo whose previous work includes Californie and Vittoria, the latter of which won Venice's best Italian film prize in 2024. Their signature approach favours non-professional actors, and Primo Viaggio is no exception: the lead cast consists of Mario Di Frenna, Sarah-Louna Darna and Lucky Salvadori, none of whom had professional acting backgrounds. Di Frenna, who plays the protagonist Carlo, was cast through an extended street-casting process — the kind of open-call search that takes casting directors into neighbourhoods rather than agencies.

Carlo is a 20-year-old from Naples who agrees to transport drugs from Malaga, Spain, back to Italy. It is his first time leaving his neighbourhood, let alone his country.

The production itself has a cross-border structure that mirrors its protagonist's journey. Italy's Sacher Film and France's Halley Production share producing duties. Benedetta Barroero produces for Sacher Film alongside Nanni Moretti, the veteran Italian film-maker whose name gives the project immediate weight in European art-house circles. Halley Production's Andrea Marcelli handles the French side; the two producers first met at the Locarno Film Festival's Alliance 4 Development co-development platform, a matchmaking programme for European film projects. Variety also reported in August 2025 that Rai Cinema and Teodora had come aboard.

Halley Production arrives with its own credentials: the company co-produced The Dinner (La Cena), a 2025 Goya-winning Spanish film directed by Manuel Gomez Pereira.

Now that shooting is complete, Primo Viaggio is bound for the Venice Film Festival's Gap-Financing Market, scheduled for 4–6 September 2026 as part of the Venice Production Bridge. The market connects producers with sales agents, festival programmers and investors — the people who help a finished film reach audiences. The Venice Biennale confirmed Primo Viaggio's selection in July 2026. Before production even began, the project had already drawn recognition: Alphapanda gave it a Special Mention at the Locarno Pro Awards in August 2025.

For a film built on non-professional performances and a story rooted in the streets of three port cities, the path from Locarno's development workshop to Venice's financing market is a short one in calendar terms — roughly a year from co-development platform to completed shoot. Whether Primo Viaggio lands a sales agent and secures distribution at Venice will determine when, and where, audiences get to take this particular trip.