Italian director Paolo Virzì (“Human Capital,” “Like Crazy”) has begun shooting in Rome on apocalyptic drama “Siccità,” set amid a protracted drought in the Italian capital and featuring an A-list local cast comprising Monica Bellucci, Sara Serraiocco (“Counterpart”) and Silvio Orlando (“The Young Pope”).

The film follows a group of characters from all walks of life who are tied by a single tragic, mocking thread as each one seeks their redemption.

The story treatment was penned by Paolo Giordano (“We Are Who We Are”) in tandem with Virzì, whose English-language “The Leisure Seeker,” with Donald Sutherland and Helen Mirren, was released in the U.S. by Sony Pictures Classics.

The screenplay for “Siccità,” which means drought in English, was co-written by Francesca Archibugi (“The Leisure Seeker”), Francesco Piccolo (“My Brilliant Friend,” the series) with Giordano and Virzì.

Bellucci recently starred in Tunisian director Kaouther Ben Hania’s “The Man Who Sold His Skin,” which is on the Oscar best international feature film shortlist. She previously worked with Virzì in “N: Napoleon and Me.”

Besides Bellucci, Serraiocco and Orlando, the “Siccità” ensemble cast also includes Valerio Mastandrea (“Perfect Strangers”); Elena Lietti, who will soon be seen in Nanni Moretti’s “Three Floors”; Claudia Pandolfi (“Baby”); and Tommaso Ragno (“Fargo”). (с)

• CINEMA