# Heads or Tails? (2025 film)
**Heads or Tails?** (Italian: *Testa o croce?*) is a 2025 Italian-American Western drama directed by Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis, in which a young woman and her outlaw lover flee across post-unification Italy after a killing, pursued by a showman playing [Buffalo Bill](https://www.edgepedia.org/buffalo-bill). It premiered in the Un Certain Regard section of the 78th Cannes Film Festival on 22 May 2025 and opened in Italian theaters on 2 October 2025.[1](https://tg24.sky.it/spettacolo/cinema/2025/10/02/testa-o-croce-film)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Original / international title | *Testa o croce?* / *Heads or Tails?*[2](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/477240/) |
| Directors and writers | Alessio Rigo de Righi and Matteo Zoppis, screenplay with Carlo Salsa[3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/testa-o-croce/) |
| Lead cast | Nadia Tereszkiewicz (Rosa), Alessandro Borghi (Santino), John C. Reilly (Buffalo Bill Cody)[3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/testa-o-croce/) |
| Premiere | Un Certain Regard, 78th Cannes Film Festival, 22 May 2025[1](https://tg24.sky.it/spettacolo/cinema/2025/10/02/testa-o-croce-film) |
| Runtime | 116 minutes[3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/testa-o-croce/) |
| Languages and production | Bilingual Italian and English; Italy–United States coproduction led by Ring Film and Cinema Inutile with Rai Cinema[1](https://tg24.sky.it/spettacolo/cinema/2025/10/02/testa-o-croce-film) • [4](https://www.raicinemainternationaldistribution.com/heads-or-tails) |
| Releases | Italy 2 October 2025; France 7 January 2026; United States limited release 10 April 2026 (Samuel Goldwyn Films)[2](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/477240/) • [5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/heads_or_tails_2025) |
## Spoilers
### Plot
At the dawn of the 20th century, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show arrives in Italy, selling the myth of the [American frontier](https://www.edgepedia.org/american-frontier). Against the backdrop of a rodeo contest between American cowboys and the Italian butteri, the cattle riders of the Roman countryside, Rosa, the young wife of a violent local landowner, falls in love with Santino, the buttero who wins the challenge. After Rosa's husband is killed, the two flee, a large bounty is placed on Santino's head, and Buffalo Bill joins the hunt, drawn by the chance of a new story to sell. Rosa dreams of reaching America, the real one rather than the one on posters with bison, while the tale of the fugitives grows into a legend that blends local folklore with the myth of the Wild West.[4](https://www.raicinemainternationaldistribution.com/heads-or-tails) • [6](https://www.comingsoon.it/film/testa-o-croce/67064/scheda/)
The film's title figure, a coin tossed in the air, stands for the moment of indeterminacy in which fate has not yet decided, a motif the directors tie to the film's theme of the difficulty of telling what is true from what is constructed.[7](https://www.eidoscinema.it/fluidita-soglie-metamorfosi-testa-o-croce-o-il-western-rivisitato) • [8](https://www.filmtv.it/film/259919/testa-o-croce/)
## Historical inspiration
The story draws on a legend the directors have known since childhood: during Buffalo Bill's Italian tour in 1890, near Cisterna di Latina, the local butteri are said to have defeated the American cowboys in a horse-breaking contest, with the buttero Augusto Imperiali outlasting the Yankees in riding unbroken colts. The episode reportedly entered popular culture, inspiring books, a biographical comic, a commemorative statue, and a school named after "Augustarello". As with oral tradition, versions of the story multiply and contradict one another, and the film builds on that ambiguity.[9](https://www.cinematografo.it/recensioni/testa-o-croce-ole3i0rz) • [8](https://www.filmtv.it/film/259919/testa-o-croce/) Director Matteo Zoppis has said his own family legend holds that his great-grandmother saw the Wild West Show in Rome, where the butteri beat Buffalo Bill's cowboys, an example of how such stories are shaped to create myths.[10](https://www.festival-cannes.com/2026/testa-o-croce-le-regard-de-matteo-zoppis-et-alessio-de-righi/)
## Production
Shooting ran from 13 September to 2 November 2024 over seven weeks, in Lazio (San Felice Circeo and Rome) and Tuscany (Massa), locations that give the Western an unfamiliar setting.[11](https://www.italyformovies.it/filmset/detail/548/) • [8](https://www.filmtv.it/film/259919/testa-o-croce/) The crew included cinematographer Simone D'Arcangelo, editors Andrés Pepe Estrada and Jacopo Ramella Pajrin, composer Vittorio Giampietro, set designer Rachele Meliadò, and costume designer Andrea Cavalletto.[1](https://tg24.sky.it/spettacolo/cinema/2025/10/02/testa-o-croce-film) • [3](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/testa-o-croce/) Production companies were Ring Film and Cinema Inutile with Rai Cinema, in association with Andromeda Film and Cinemaundici and in collaboration with Volos Films Italia; Rai Cinema International Distribution handles world sales.[12](https://italianpavilion.it/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ItalianFilms%40Cannes2025DEFdef.pdf)
The directors describe the film as a Western ballad set in Italy, an anti-Western that starts from classic premises, the cowboy, the duel, the flight, and gradually turns toward something more magical and surreal, constructed as a postmodern epic tale in which reality and fiction blur and storytelling itself becomes part of the film.[13](https://cinetecadibologna.it/programmazione/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/VI25_Catalogo_150x170_esec-web.pdf) It is their second fiction feature after *The Tale of King Crab* (2021), which had already played with Western elements.[9](https://www.cinematografo.it/recensioni/testa-o-croce-ole3i0rz) • [14](https://icsfilm.org/festivals/cannes/2025-cannes/cannes-2025-review-heads-or-tails-matteo-zoppis-alessio-rigo-de-righi/)
## Reception and festival run
After Cannes, the film screened in the Piazza Grande at Locarno 2025, in [Competition](https://www.edgepedia.org/competition) at the Tokyo International Film Festival 2025, and at the Valladolid International Film Festival (Seminci) in the Punto de Encuentro section.[2](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/477240/) • [8](https://www.filmtv.it/film/259919/testa-o-croce/) • [15](https://filmitalia.org/Files/2025/11/28/1764351109169.pdf)
Italian critics received it generally positively. Cineuropa's Camillo De Marco called it "a fun and cheeky anti-Western about the arrival of Buffalo Bill's show in Italy and the flight of two hunted lovers"; Paolo Mereghetti praised how it weaves the folklore of a newly unified Italy with the American myth of the West, while finding that the screenplay, signed by the directors with Carlo Salsa, takes on too much, anarchists and revolutionaries included.[1](https://tg24.sky.it/spettacolo/cinema/2025/10/02/testa-o-croce-film) • [16](https://www.iodonna.it/spettacoli/cinema/2025/10/04/testa-o-croce-rigo-de-righi-matteo-zoppis-alessandro-borghi-western-recensione-film-mereghetti/) On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 87% Tomatometer score from 30 reviews, with a critics consensus crediting [John C. Reilly](https://www.edgepedia.org/john-c-reilly)'s charismatic performance and the film's transformation of Italy's landscapes into a stage for outlaw romance and playful surrealism.[5](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/heads_or_tails_2025) On IMDb it rates 6.0/10 from 466 votes.[17](https://www.imdb.com/it/title/tt32448429/)
## References
1. [Testa o croce? Cosa sapere sul film con Alessandro Borghi e John C. Reilly, Sky TG24](https://tg24.sky.it/spettacolo/cinema/2025/10/02/testa-o-croce-film)
2. [Heads or Tails? (Testa o croce?), Cineuropa](https://cineuropa.org/en/film/477240/)
3. [Testa o croce? (Heads or Tails?), Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/f/testa-o-croce/)
4. [Heads or Tails?, Rai Cinema International Distribution](https://www.raicinemainternationaldistribution.com/heads-or-tails)
5. [Heads or Tails? (2025), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/heads_or_tails_2025)
6. [Testa o Croce? Film (2025), ComingSoon.it](https://www.comingsoon.it/film/testa-o-croce/67064/scheda/)
7. [Fluidità, soglie, metamorfosi: Testa o croce?, o il western rivisitato, Eidos](https://www.eidoscinema.it/fluidita-soglie-metamorfosi-testa-o-croce-o-il-western-rivisitato)
8. [Testa o croce? (2025), FilmTV.it](https://www.filmtv.it/film/259919/testa-o-croce/)
9. [Testa o croce?, la recensione di Valerio Sammarco, Cinematografo](https://www.cinematografo.it/recensioni/testa-o-croce-ole3i0rz)
10. [Testa o croce, le regard de Matteo Zoppis et Alessio De Righi, Festival de Cannes](https://www.festival-cannes.com/2026/testa-o-croce-le-regard-de-matteo-zoppis-et-alessio-de-righi/)
11. [Testa o croce? scheda set, Italy for Movies](https://www.italyformovies.it/filmset/detail/548/)
12. [Italian Films @ Cannes 2025, Italian Pavilion](https://italianpavilion.it/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/ItalianFilms%40Cannes2025DEFdef.pdf)
13. [Testa o croce?, Cineteca di Bologna festival catalog](https://cinetecadibologna.it/programmazione/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/10/VI25_Catalogo_150x170_esec-web.pdf)
14. [Cannes 2025 review: Heads or Tails?, ICS Film](https://icsfilm.org/festivals/cannes/2025-cannes/cannes-2025-review-heads-or-tails-matteo-zoppis-alessio-rigo-de-righi/)
15. [Seminci Valladolid 2025 selection, Filmitalia](https://filmitalia.org/Files/2025/11/28/1764351109169.pdf)
16. [Testa o croce?: la recensione di Paolo Mereghetti, iO Donna](https://www.iodonna.it/spettacoli/cinema/2025/10/04/testa-o-croce-rigo-de-righi-matteo-zoppis-alessandro-borghi-western-recensione-film-mereghetti/)
17. [Testa o croce? (2025), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/it/title/tt32448429/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Westerns, 1980 onward*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license