Now climbing the Netflix Global Top 10, The Big Fake (Il Falsario) is 2025 Italian movie that dives into one of the most ambiguous and unsettling chapters of the country’s recent history. Directed by Stefano Lodovichi, the film brings a true story to the screen—threading together crime, power, and false identities against the tense backdrop of Italy’s Years of Lead – the period of social unrest and political violence that marked Italy from the late 1960s through the 1980s. Premiering at the 2025 Rome Film Festival, the film drew early attention for its dark, adult tone and its refusal to simplify history. Built around crime, power, and fabricated identities, The Big Fake uses that turbulent era as a backdrop for a story where truth is unstable and authority is constantly in question. Here’s everything to know about The Big Fake (trailer at the bottom).
The Big Fake – all the key details
- Title: The Big Fake
- Original title: Il falsario
- Format: Film
- Runtime: 110 minutes
- Genre: Crime drama, political thriller
- Country of origin: Italy
- Original language: Italian
- Director: Stefano Lodovichi
- Screenplay: Sandro Petraglia, Lorenzo Bagnatori
- Lead cast: Pietro Castellitto, Claudio Santamaria, Giulia Michelini, Edoardo Pesce
- Production: Netflix
- Premiered at: Rome Film Festival 2025
- Coming to Netflix on: January 23, 2026
The Big Fake – What it’s about
The film tells the story of Toni Chichiarelli, one of Italy’s most notorious and enigmatic counterfeiters—a controversial figure linked to the Banda della Magliana and to several of the darkest turning points in Italian criminal and political history. Through his personal rise and fall, The Big Fake explores a world of forged documents, manufactured identities, shadowy alliances, and truths that never fully came to light. This isn’t just a portrait of a criminal—it’s also the story of an era when the line between the State, organized crime, and behind-the-scenes power brokers was dangerously thin: Italy in the 1970s. The movie moves through psychological tension, historical reconstruction, and a constant sense of threat.
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The Big Fake – Cast and creators
The Big Fake draws on performers closely associated with Italian crime and social-realist cinema. At the center is Toni Chichiarelli, played by Pietro Castellitto, an actor known for complex, morally ambiguous roles in films like I predatori, Freaks Out, and Enea. It’s a strong fit for a real-life figure who remained elusive – someone able to move between crime, power, and multiple identities without ever becoming fully legible. Co-starring is Claudio Santamaria, a key presence in Italian crime cinema, with credits including Romanzo criminale, They Call Me Jeeg, and The Traitor. His casting immediately signals a world shaped by violence, shifting loyalties, and the gray areas of authority.
Giulia Michelini, previously seen in Romanzo criminale – The Series, ACAB, and I nostri ragazzi, brings a more intimate, emotional layer to the story—often the core of her performances in harsh, morally unstable settings. Rounding out the main cast is Edoardo Pesce, a familiar face for gritty, restless roles in films like Dogman and Don’t Be Bad, reinforcing the film’s raw, grounded tone.
The Big Fake – is it based on a true story?
Yes. The Big Fake (original title: Il falsario) is a dramatized crime film inspired by the real-life story of Antonio “Toni” Chichiarelli, an artist and master forger who operated in Rome during Italy’s Years of Lead – a period of social and political turmoil stretching from the late 1960s through the 1980s, marked by political violence and terrorism.
The film draws from the nonfiction book Il falsario di Stato and places Chichiarelli at the intersection of organized crime and political chaos, including links to Rome’s criminal underworld commonly associated with the Banda della Magliana. One of the most historically charged episodes connected to his story is the forged Communiqué No. 7 during the 1978 Aldo Moro kidnapping, a document intended to manipulate public perception at a moment of national crisis.
Rather than offering a strict biographical reconstruction, The Big Fake reshapes documented people and events into a narrative form, blending historical fact with dramatized scenes to explore how truth, power, and fabrication collided during one of Italy’s most unstable decades.
When does The Big Fake come out on Netflix
The Big Fake lands on Netflix on January 23, 2026.
