Visitors to the Naples region have long been drawn to its rich archaeological heritage, notably the famed sites of Pompeii and Herculaneum. A new documentary by filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi, released on the streaming platform Mubi this March, offers a distinctive exploration of this landscape. Titled *Pompei: Below the Clouds*, the nearly two-hour film presents the area’s history through a series of sharp, ashen black-and-white images, eschewing narration and interviews to immerse viewers in scenes that stretch across the region’s past and present.

Rather than focusing solely on the well-trodden ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum, Rosi’s camera stays aboard the Circumvesuviana, a narrow-gauge railway running east from Naples Porta Nolana. This approach allows the film to highlight lesser-known locales and the layered histories embedded in towns along the route. The stretch includes Torre Annunziata, where Roman brickwork and Doric columns from ancient villas coexist with mid-20th-century residential buildings, and Villa Oplontis, a remarkably preserved Roman site believed to have belonged to Poppaea Sabina, wife of Emperor Nero, noted for its frescoes and colonnaded structure.

Traveling westward from the city on the Cumana line, which connects Naples’ Montesanto station to the port city of Pozzuoli, the documentary sheds light on another facet of the region’s volatile geology. Pozzuoli, situated within the Phlegraean Fields caldera, is characterized by active bradyseism—the gradual rising and sinking of the Earth's surface due to magma movement beneath. At the ancient Macellum of Pozzuoli, a Roman marketplace from the 2nd century, visible bands of marine mollusk borings highlight periods when parts of the structure were submerged underwater. Nearby submerged ruins in Baia, including marble statues dotted across the seafloor, further illustrate the impacts of this geological activity.

Rosi’s work also contemplates the broader cultural and historical legacy preserved within Naples itself. Filming at the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, the documentary captures the museum’s vast stores of fragmented sculptures and artifacts, described as a “safe of memory,” symbolizing the city’s fractured but enduring connection to its past. Contrasted with these ancient relics are present-day religious customs, such as the offering of ex-votos—small metal plates shaped like body parts—in churches like Santa Maria Francesca delle Cinque Piaghe in the Quartieri Spagnoli quarter. These acts reflect ongoing expressions of faith and tradition intertwined with local identity.

The film’s concluding scenes take place in an abandoned cinema along the railway, where clips from Roberto Rossellini’s *Journey to Italy* are projected amid decaying seats and walls, evoking Naples as a city continuously built on layers of ruin and memory. The documentary invites viewers to reflect on a civilization interrupted by catastrophe yet still omnipresent beneath the modern cityscape—an idea echoed by Rosi’s assertion that “we are already living inside the catastrophe.”

Sites featured in the film, including Pompeii, Herculaneum, Villa Oplontis, and the Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, remain accessible to visitors. The Circumvesuviana and Cumana train lines provide transit between Naples and these historically rich locales, offering opportunities to experience both the well-known and hidden narratives of the region.