Diabolik: Chi sei? [Diabolik: Who Are You?] (2023, Giacomo Gianniotti, Miriam Leone, Valerio Mastandrea, Monica Bellucci, Massimiliano Rossi, Pier Giorgio Bellocchio, Barbara Bouchet) – Classic Movie Review 13,659

The Manetti Bros’ 2023 Italian crime action fantasy film Diabolik: Who Are You? is the slick, successful and satisfying final film in their Diabolik comic series trilogy.

The Manetti Bros’ 2023 Italian crime action fantasy film Diabolik: Chi sei? [Diabolik: Who Are You?] is the slick, successful and satisfying final film in their Diabolik comic series trilogy. It finds Diabolik (Giacomo Gianniotti) and Inspector Ginko (Valerio Mastandrea) captured by a ruthless criminal gang and locked up together in the same cellar cell, with the criminals about to kill them. While Diabolik tells his backstory to the inspector, Eva Kant (Miriam Leone) and Altea (Monica Bellucci) are planning to try to rescue their men.

All four stars are ideal, re-creating their roles confidently and appealingly, all very relaxed and practised for their final outing. Massimiliano Rossi is exceptionally sleazy as the main villain, criminal mastermind Diego Manden, and Pier Giorgio Bellocchio is exceptionally loyal as the plodding policeman Sergeant Palmer, Ginko’s longtime friend and colleague. Barbara Bouchet appears all to briefly as wealthy aristocrat Countess Wiendemar, Diabolik and Eva’s mark at the start of the film (they plan to steal her collection of valuable ancient coins).

The film is lovingly made by the Manetti Bros in Italy, where they’ve managed to find gorgeously evocative Sixties locations and artefacts. The visuals are often mesmerising (cinematography by Angelo Sorrentino), still with the split screen and high shots. The score by Pivio and Aldo De Scalzi is deliciously Sixties and kitschy. The film is campy but still takes the action seriously enough to be exciting, and stays on the right side of spoof. There’s a little bit of darkness in there that gives it edge and command.

The backstory flashbacks are smoothly and compellingly done, filmed on the island of Dino in the Tyrrhenian Sea off the coast of Calabria, with Lorenzo Zurzolo taking over intensely as Diabolik at 20 years old, and Paolo Calabresi creepy as heck as Diabolik’s mentor King. The only trouble here is that Giacomo Gianniotti is sidelined for a chunk of the movie. But the backstory idea is a good one, and profitably mined here. The Bond movie folk could take a hint from this idea to explore young James Bond and the birth of a spy.

The script by the Manetti Bros is loosely based on the 1968 Diabolik comic strip Diabolik, chi sei? by Angela and Luciana Giussani. 

It premiered at the 18th Rome Film Festival on 10 October 2023 and was released in Italy on 30 November 2023.

It follows the events of the 2021 Diabolik and the 2022 Diabolik: Ginko Attacks!, and will be more satisfying after seeing those.

It was shot in late 2022 in Trieste, Palmi, Bologna, and the island of Dino.

Lorenzo Zurzolo plays Vincenzo in Under the Riccione Sun and Under the Amalfi Sun.

© Derek Winnert 2025 – Classic Movie Review 13,659

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