For centuries, the city of Pompei and its surrounding regions have existed under the ever-watchful shadow of Mount Vesuvius. The volcano’s quiet presence is a perpetual reminder of both past devastation and the fragile beauty of daily life. Now, acclaimed Italian director Gianfranco Rosi invites audiences to experience this unique world through his latest documentary, Pompei: Below the Clouds, which is set to arrive in U.S. theaters and on the MUBI streaming platform in March 2026.
Rosi’s film is not just another historical account or disaster chronicle. Instead, as Deadline reports, it’s a mesmerizing journey into the rhythms, anxieties, and resilience of a community that lives in the literal and metaphorical shadow of catastrophe. Shot in lustrous black and white, Pompei: Below the Clouds captures the essence of life in southern Italy, where the ground beneath one’s feet is never quite still and history seeps from every stone and whisper.
The documentary, which premiered at the 82nd Venice International Film Festival in 2025, garnered critical acclaim and took home the Special Jury Prize. It continued to make waves as an official selection at major festivals worldwide, including the New York Film Festival, BFI London Film Festival, Stockholm Film Festival, Valladolid International Film Festival in Spain, IDFA in Amsterdam, and São Paulo International Film Festival in Brazil. According to TV Central News, this global recognition is a testament to the film’s universal themes and Rosi’s distinctive storytelling approach.
U.S. audiences will first have the chance to see the film at the IFC Center and Walter Reade Theater in New York City starting March 6, 2026. A week later, it will open at the Laemmle Royal in Los Angeles and the Gene Siskel Film Center in Chicago, before making its streaming debut on MUBI on March 27, 2026. The streaming rollout is ambitious, covering North America, Latin America, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Spain, India, Australia, New Zealand, and, soon after, Turkey, as confirmed by a MUBI media release.
What sets Pompei: Below the Clouds apart is Rosi’s immersive and open-ended filmmaking style. Renowned for his Oscar-nominated Fire at Sea and the Golden Lion-winning Sacro GRA, Rosi has long eschewed traditional scripts in favor of lived experience and organic encounters. At a Q&A in Los Angeles, he described his process: “Most of my films, I don’t write a script, I just write a few pages with an idea of what would be the film. Of course, I don’t write characters, storytelling, because I like to start this journey in a totally open way and let reality come to me constantly. And that’s how I start writing my film by living in a situation, by staying there [in the location]. My biggest investment is time.”
Rosi’s commitment to immersion means he often works as a one-person crew, handling both cinematography and sound. This approach allows him to blend seamlessly into the fabric of the place, gradually earning the trust of locals and capturing moments that feel both intimate and revealing. “Working as a one-person crew allows me to spend a lot of time in a place and become part of that and try to understand, encounter. The story of my films is the story of the encounter [with] people. First I have to encounter place, a location. Then within this location I have to encounter people and then have to build the relationship with the people I meet and then start getting involved in their own story,” Rosi explained, as quoted by Deadline.
Over the course of three years, Rosi embedded himself in the communities around Naples and Vesuvius, capturing the subtle interplay between everyday life and the ever-present threat of disaster. The documentary is filled with scenes that evoke both the ordinary and the extraordinary: archaeologists delicately brushing away centuries of volcanic ash to reveal fragments of history; children reciting lessons as the earth hums beneath their feet; firefighters answering calls from nervous residents when the ground shakes. In one memorable moment, a woman phones the fire department and, with a mix of nonchalance and concern, says, “I was cooking a nice ragù” when the tremors began.
This mosaic of daily life is set against a landscape where the past is never far from the present. The film’s synopsis, as cited by Deadline and MUBI, paints a vivid picture: “Between Mount Vesuvius and the Gulf of Naples, the ground shakes periodically and the fumaroles of the Phlegraean Fields taint the air. From the traces of history, memories of the subterranean world, and the concerns of the present, in black and white, a lesser-known Naples emerges and fills with voices, with lives. Below the clouds lies a territory crisscrossed by locals, worshippers, tourists, and archaeologists excavating a past that in museums will give new life and meaning to statues, fragments, and ruins.”
The train that rings Vesuvius makes its rounds as racehorses train along the shore. A teacher runs a makeshift afterschool for children and adolescents. Firemen in their command center calm the fears of the locals who call in, law enforcement tracks down tomb robbers, and in the port of Torre Annunziata, Syrian tankers unload Ukrainian grain. The land that skirts the gulf is, as the film suggests, a vast time machine—one where the ancient and the modern coexist in a delicate, sometimes uneasy, balance.
Behind the camera and the sound recorder is Rosi himself, while the film’s editing is handled by Fabrizio Federico, in collaboration with Joe Bini. The evocative score is composed by Academy Award winner Daniel Blumberg. The production is a collaboration between Donatella Palermo, Gianfranco Rosi, Paolo Del Brocco, 21Uno Film srl, Stemal Entertainment srl, and Rai Cinema, reflecting the international scope and ambition of the project.
Pompei: Below the Clouds is Rosi’s first black-and-white feature in over thirty years, and the visual choice lends the film a timeless quality, blurring the boundaries between past and present. According to MUBI, the result is “a striking and human portrait of Naples, a city forever marked by the looming presence of Mount Vesuvius. While the volcano’s quiet threat lingers in the background, Rosi turns his lens toward the everyday rhythms of life that continue undisturbed.”
Rosi’s previous work has set a high bar for documentary filmmaking, and Pompei: Below the Clouds continues that tradition. His earlier films, such as Fire at Sea (which earned an Oscar nomination and the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival), Sacro GRA (winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival), and Notturno, have all explored the intersection of place, history, and human experience. With this latest project, Rosi once again demonstrates his ability to find the extraordinary in the ordinary—and to remind viewers that even in the shadow of disaster, life goes on.
As Pompei: Below the Clouds prepares for its U.S. theatrical and global streaming debut, audiences everywhere will have the chance to witness a city—and a people—who have learned to live, love, and rebuild with resilience and grace, even as the earth beneath them continues to rumble.