The period drama, which premieres in competition at the Venice Film Festival, follows a commune of young artists living in southern Italy on the eve of World War I.


Mario Martone is looking to bring some southern Italian heat to this year's Venice Film Festival.


The trailer for Martone's Capri Revolution, which premieres in competition in Venice, is a smoldering look at Lucia, a young rural woman on the island of Capri, caught in a repressive marriage, who discovers a commune of free-living artists.


The film is set in 1914 as Italy is on the brink of entering World War I. A group of dissidents and nonconformists from Northern Europe, led by the charismatic painter Seybu, set up a commune on Capri to live their lives as they see fit. When Lucia discovers the group, she is forced to choose between her traditional life and one that promises true liberation.


Marianna Fontana plays Lucia, with Dutch actor Reinout Scholten van Aschat (The Heineken Kidnapping) as Seybu. The trailer shows Lucia's first encounters with Seybu and the other scantily-clad members of the commune. Lucia's conflict with her family escalates even as Italy itself thunders inescapably towards war.


Martone apparently took his inspiration for the film from the real-life story of German painter and social reformer Karl Wilhelm Diefenbach, a pioneer of the naturist and the peace movements, who set up a country commune near Vienna before eventually moving to Capri.


Italian distributor 01 Distribution will bow Capri Revolution in Italy in December.


Martone is an old hand in Venice, having premiered such features as Noi cedevamo (2010) and Leopardi (2014) at the Italian festival.


Check out the trailer for Capri Revolution below.