Director Ramin Niami’s unconventional new drama Fade Away will have its world premiere at the Matera International Film Festival on October 1, 2026. Shot in Narni and Rome on an iPhone with a minimal crew, the 100-minute feature stars Nicolas Porcelli and Anastasia Bay in a psychologically charged story of love, memory, addiction and unraveling reality.
Written and developed day by day during production, Fade Away follows Anthony, an Italian American writer who returns to Narni after his wife Lara leaves him. As he revisits their once-hopeful relationship—and its deterioration amid his creative struggles and drinking—Lara unexpectedly reappears, setting in motion a narrative that moves between recollection, imagination and a darkly revealing final twist.
Niami embraced an unusually fluid production process, encouraging improvisation and inviting his actors to build fictionalized versions of themselves. “Why wait for endless development and financing? Why not just make the film?” the director says of the project, which prioritizes spontaneity, performance and a poetic visual language over conventional filmmaking structures.
Porcelli leads the cast as Anthony, alongside Bay as Lara, with Amedeo Carlo Capitanelli, Tatiana Klements and Elisa Gabrielli. Iranian New Wave filmmaker Amir Naderi serves as executive producer, lending creative support during the film’s development and editing.
