General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20266 min read

Luna Nera

Luna Nera (English: Black Moon) is an Italian historical fantasy television series released on Netflix on 31 January 2020, set in 17th-century Italy and centered on a teenage midwife accused of witchcraft who finds refuge among a hidden community of women with supernatural powers¹^•². It was created by Francesca Manieri, Laura Paolucci, and Tiziana Triana, produced by Fandango, and distributed by Netflix as an Italian original¹^•³.

Key fact	Detail
Format	Six episodes, all released on Netflix on 31 January 2020; average runtime about 45 minutes¹^•⁴
Source	Adapted from the first volume of Tiziana Triana's trilogy Le città perdute³
Creative team	Created by Francesca Manieri, Laura Paolucci, and Tiziana Triana; directed by Francesca Comencini, Susanna Nicchiarelli, and Paola Randi¹
Setting	17th-century Italy, in a fictional village of the Tuscia in the Lazio countryside²^•⁵
Lead cast	Antonia Fotaras as Ade, with Giorgio Belli, Manuela Mandracchia, Federica Fracassi, and Lucrezia Guidone¹
Status	Canceled after one season; no second season was produced⁶
Reception	IMDb rating 5.9/10 from about 3,900 user votes⁷

Spoilers

Premise and story

The series is set in a dark, superstitious 17th-century Italy where women could be accused of witchcraft and condemned to death³. Its protagonist is Ade, a sixteen-year-old midwife played by Antonia Fotaras, who is skilled at her trade and gifted with unusual sensitivity³. In the opening episode, "Omen", Ade has a dark premonition while helping her grandmother deliver a baby; after the strange death of the newborn, the two women are accused of witchcraft and condemned to death, and Ade must flee her village with her younger brother²^•⁵.

The two sides of the conflict. Ade takes refuge with a mysterious community of women living at the edge of the forest, marginalized by society as witches and known as the Lost Cities (Le città perdute)³^•⁵. These women claim powers that others do well to fear, which would be unleashed in conjunction with a mysterious eclipse⁵. Hunting them are the Benandanti, literally "the good walkers", a sect of men supported by the Catholic Church³^•⁸. The Benandanti draw on figures of Italian folklore, a shamanic peasant cult traditionally said to protect the fields from the action of witches⁸.

A romantic plot runs through the season: Ade falls in love with Pietro, son of the Benandanti leader Sante, so that her boyfriend's father is the very man hunting her for witchcraft²^•⁹. Ade is forced to choose between this impossible love and fulfilling her destiny⁵. The six episodes, titled Omen, Liber, Voces, Fatum, Arma, and Lux, build to a climactic confrontation between the witches and the Benandanti in which lives and loves are transformed²^•⁴.

Title and themes

The title refers both to the astronomical phenomenon of the black moon and to its symbolism as an expression of liberation from patriarchal domination⁸. An academic analysis in Comunicazioni sociali describes the series as a contemporary fantasy set in a mimetic historical world intersecting with a non-mimetic secret world, in which the historical drama of the Inquisition intertwines with an occult struggle between good and evil; the Lost Cities in fact possess extraordinary powers that let them protect the world and oppose Marzio Oreggi, a bishop secretly bent on evil⁸.

The production was framed around a female creative team. The writing staff was entirely female, comprising Triana herself, Francesca Manieri, Laura Paolucci, and Valentina Picciarelli, and Italian press presented the show as an all-Italian fantasy focused on the witch hunts of the 1600s, a century of the Scientific Revolution and religious fanaticism⁵. Susanna Mastroianni designed the costumes and Laura Buffoni was executive producer⁵.

Production and filming

The series entered production before its source novel had even appeared in bookstores; Triana had just begun publishing the Le città perdute saga with the publisher Sonzogno, and Francesca Comencini joined as artistic director and director of the project alongside Paola Randi and Susanna Nicchiarelli⁵. Shooting lasted sixteen weeks in Lazio⁵.

Locations. The 17th-century sets were rebuilt at the Cinecittà Studios in Rome¹⁰. The fictional village of Serra, home of Pietro's family and the base of the Benandanti, was filmed in Celleno (VT), a ghost village atop a tuff spur surrounded by gorges, cliffs, waterfalls, and ponds¹⁰. Other locations included Sorano (GR), particularly the areas near the vie Cave and the road to the Porta dei Merli, the Castle of Montecalvello near Viterbo, and Sutri (VT)¹⁰.

The cast combined eight debuting performers and emerging talents, including Antonia Fotaras, Giada Gagliardi, Adalgisa Manfrida, Lucrezia Guidone, Barbara Ronchi, and Giorgio Belli, with established stage and screen actors such as Manuela Mandracchia and Federica Fracassi⁵.

Release and reception

Netflix announced the project in April 2018 among a batch of new European productions, and the completed series premiered on 31 January 2020 with all six episodes released simultaneously¹¹^•¹. It arrived a week after The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, in a market crowded with supernatural series⁹.

Reception was mixed. On IMDb the series holds a 5.9/10 rating from about 3,900 votes, with individual first-season episodes scoring between 6.1 and 6.5⁷. The Review Geek's season review praised the dark tone, the production design with its muted colors and dazzling magic effects, and the storyline between the characters Valente and Leptis, but criticized underdeveloped plot points, weak chemistry between Ade and Pietro, and a promising science-versus-religion debate abandoned midway through the season, giving a verdict of 5/10⁹. Reviewers quoted by FilmAffinity similarly found the first episode confusing while seeing the nugget of a fine story¹². An academic assessment noted that critics pointed to formal and narrative shortcomings, describing the interweaving of fantasy and history as a fragile knot that emphasizes the gender issue while avoiding much of the historical context⁸.

After one season. The series was canceled and no second season was produced; Netflix issued no official statement on the decision⁶. The story's later arcs remain unresolved on screen, and readers seeking a conclusion can turn to the Le città perdute trilogy, of which the series adapted only the first book⁶.

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Genre and subject-scripted series › Fantasy, supernatural, and horror series › Horror drama and thriller series › Supernatural and occult dramas › Titles symbols to L

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

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