The Last One for the Road

The Last One for the Road / Le città di pianura

Francesco Sossai, Italy, Germany, 2025, 100’ 

A chance encounter grows into a chaotic journey through the Venetian plains, where plans are constantly thwarted by bad advice, hangovers, and unexpected friendships. 

“I wanted to portray a true Lost Generation: men born in the 1970s, in a time of intense economic growth, who found themselves, after the 2008 crisis, facing a radically different world. To me, they belong to a twilight generation – children of a world that was already fading, and strangers to the one they now inhabit. Carlobianchi and Doriano have been ejected from the production system, and that’s what makes them interesting in my eyes. I’m not interested in creating identification between these characters and the audience – that kind of emotional shortcut doesn’t appeal to me. What I aim for instead is a sense of wonder toward the characters. /…/ 

And then there’s Giulio… Giulio represents a type of human being – the humanist – who is also in decline, and who seems to have very little space left in today’s world. He makes me think of the words of philosopher Giorgio Agamben, who said that only those who are not contemporary – those who live in fracture with their own time – can truly be contemporary.” Francesco Sossai 

Francesco Sossai graduated in Film Direction at the Deutsche Film- und Fernsehakademie in Berlin, after a degree in English and German Literature. While attending Film School, he created his first feature film, Other Cannibals (Altri Cannibali, 2021), which was awarded as the best debut feature at the Poff Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, among many others. His short film The Birthday Party (2023) premiered at the Quinzaine des cinéastes and was nominated for the European Film Awards and the Deutsche Kurzfilmpreis. The Last One for the Road premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in the Un Certain Regard section.  

With support from the Italian Cultural Institute. 

Screened with:
In the Clouds Of Memory / Nelle nuvole della memoria
Francesco Sossai,  Italy, Slovenia, 2025, 8′ 

A man returns from a future in which the art of cinema no longer exists, searching for a copy of a film starring Nora Gregor.
In collaboration with Kinoatelje.