original title:
A pranzo la domenica
directed by:
cast:
screenplay:
cinematography:
editing:
set design:
costume design:
Elena Delicati
music:
Francesco Barbato
production:
ZTV Production, Mirage Film, supported by Ministero della Cultura, with the support of Film Commission Regione Campania
country:
Italy
year:
2026
film run:
90'
format:
colour
status:
Ready (28/01/2026)
After the death of her mother, whom she cared for over twenty years, Adele A., 55, finds herself without a job, without money, and without a social role. Too young to retire and too old for the job market, she lives in a small provincial town where everyone thinks they know her, but no one truly sees her — not even her two brothers, with whom she shares only the Sunday lunch. Between melancholic moments and others unexpectedly ironic, Adele struggles to rebuild her life and give herself a new beginning. Sunday Lunch is a bittersweet comedy about a woman to whom life grants, through unforeseen paths, another chance — set against the backdrop of a collective human comedy.
DIRECTOR’S NOTES:
Family Sunday Lunch was born from a double desire: to tell a story of rebirth — that of Adele A. — and to set it in the world of the Italian “provincia”, a reality that has always provided the richest and most surprising material for our cinema, especially for that commedia all’italiana which portrayed the country better than any sociology book.
The “provincia”, seemingly static and reassuring, is in fact a small, vivid world — both cruel and wonderful — where archetypes and gathering places repeat themselves, similar yet different, from North to South.
The theme of rebirth, of the second chance that life offers (or that one chooses to take), feels deeply relevant today. In a time when nothing seems definitive — jobs, marriages, human relations — and the unexpected can upend every certainty, one can still decide to turn and take another road.
The rebirth of a middle-aged woman with no special qualities is therefore all the more surprising as it springs from a common condition: ordinary life.
Family Sunday Lunch is a bittersweet human comedy, humbly inspired by the films of Germi and Pietrangeli, where a tear that never falls is followed by a discreet, ironic, affectionate smile — and by the theatre of Eduardo De Filippo, which constantly blends tragedy and comedy. After all, in a provincial town , everything makes a stir — but never a noise.