With the first king, Matteo rovere had given us on the big screen a reinterpretation of a myth that cinema had not yet properly exploited, that of founding of Rome – and, consequently, of our entire civilization. An interesting story for its rawness and maturity, which certainly did not go unnoticed in the eyes of Sky’s creative direction.

Therefore, starting on November 6 on the Atlantic channel, a new original product entirely made in Sky, created by Rovere and co-produced by Cattleya and Greenland: Romulus, the television series that explores (and expands) the narrative of The First King and tells us one more point of view about the origins of Latino culture.

Attention, however: although it shares structural and stylistic canons, Romulus is a different product from the story of Romulus and Remus: it deepens their narrative universe, but it is chronologically situated in a different time, to tell us something more about the populations that inhabited Lazio . in a world still quite primitive.

Before the myth

Because if the most famous story of our antiquity starts from the bloody fratricide and the path of Romulus that would have led to one of the most powerful and influential civilizations in the history of man, it is also true that the territory in which the roots of Italy were born today I was a primitive and rural melting pot, composed of rituals and brutality, but in which a social substratum was being configured willing to transform and unify under a single banner. The one of “Ruma“. But let’s proceed in order, telling you who are the protagonists of Romulus: before the advent of the two brothers destined to found Rome, in the 8th century BC. Latin League, an agglomeration of thirty towns that responded to the authority of a single king, that of Alba, the greatest Denominator, and by the will of the gods, a primordial pantheon in which many of the main deities of Latin mythology were recognized. The tranquility and political stability of the League, however, is about to be devastated by a disastrous event: Numitor, after consulting the haruspex, must accept his fate, go into exile and leave the throne of Alba in the hands of his two nephews, COME (Giovanni Buselli) and We go (Andrea Arcangeli).

The twins were born to Numitor’s daughter, Silvia, and therefore they are direct heirs to the command of the League, as well as united by an indissoluble bond that will lead them to reign together. However Araulius (Sergio Romano), Numitor’s brother, plot behind the royal family, and the tragedy that will befall Alba will also involve the antagonist’s daughter, Ilia (Marianna Fontana), priestess of the temple of Vesta and worshiper of the goddess of fertility.

But Romulus is also a concentrate of other key characters: far from Alba, in Velia, a group of young people must face a test of maturity: survive for six months in the forest, exposed to the threats of ferocious beasts and a mysterious creature that sinks its roots in the myth itself. She is Rumination, a savage and brutal wolf-like goddess who has inhabited forests since time immemorial; Among the Luperci, the group called to survive, there are Wiros (Francesco Di Napoli), a slave without origin or memory whose fate will soon be linked to that of Yemos (Andrea Arcangeli), the prince of Alba who will be forced to flee after the betrayal of his uncle Amulius.

A fraternal bond is born between the two, but the protagonists are soon confronted with Rumia’s own existence, coming into contact with a wild people and worshipers of the wolf goddess, who will show the two young men the fate that awaits them. awaits them: a “promised land” It will rise above all other civilizations, a city that no one will dare to challenge. Ruma, in fact, the future Rome.

The legend according to Rovere

In short, Romulus tells and expands the myth of the founding of Rome into a product that deepen a real narrative universe, which from The First King becomes a television series that we can consider an alternative version of Rovere’s feature film. The director returns here at the head of the project, instilling all his vision of the author in the Sky Original series a product that combines myth and fantasy, trying to imagine how the peoples of the Latin League lived before the birth of Rome.
Rovere takes us into brutality and the primitive world with its usual essential but symbolic direction, in a story that wants to enhance the concept of “as much as possible”.ferinità“Applied to a culture in the primordial origins of its history.

Romulus is therefore a series shot with intelligence, which wisely exploits a suggestive photography and a reconstructed set with great abundance and attention to the historical period of reference: the result is a production of enormous atmosphere, as was the film from which it came, thanks above all to the suggestive idea of recite it in full in Proto-Latin (with appropriate Italian subtitles, of course).

The history of Yemos and Wiros also needs its own time to evolve according to the extraordinary and fascinating vision of its creator, and that is why the first 6 episodes that we were able to advance also stood out. some problems in managing the narrative rhythm, with a powerful story, but also slow, and in which the mechanisms of the script find it difficult to trigger effectively. As developments begin to take shape, or rather towards the fourth episode, the product takes on compelling nuances, dictated by a crude, rotten and visually experimental staging. While waiting to see the final episodes of the Rovere show, in short, Romulus is promoted despite an initial lengthening, but to express a definitive judgment (which, we hope, is completely positive) we can only wait to know how the series will continue. history. at the origins of our myth.