“Hey Joe,” a dramatic film featuring James Franco as a U.S. Navy sailor based in Naples after World War II, will have its global debut at the Rome Film Festival next month.

The intense film, directed by Claudio Giovannesi (“Gomorrah” TV series, “Piranhas”), is produced by Italy’s Palomar in partnership with RAI Cinema and Vision Distribution, which will distribute the film in Italy. Vision Distribution International is handling international sales.

In “Hey Joe,” Franco plays Dean Barry, an American sailor who in 1944, at age 23, disembarks in war-torn Naples. He falls in love with a young, very poor, local woman named Lucia. A couple of years later, Dean is forced to leave Lucia, alone and pregnant, to go back to New Jersey. He eventually returns to Naples to find the woman and her son, Enzo — but the city has changed a lot and Dean must navigate these challenges leading up to a surprise finale. Franco speaks both English and Italian in the film.

Once one of Hollywood’s most sought-after actors, Franco has recently been taking on roles outside of the U.S. following a now-resolved 2019 lawsuit alleging that he sexually exploited young women who participated in his acting class. He made his return to film for the first time since the lawsuit earlier this year with the French action-thriller “The Price of Money: A Largo Winch Adventure.”

The “Hey Joe” script was penned by Giovannesi and renowned Neapolitan writer Maurizio Braucci, who previously collaborated with Giovannesi on “Piranhas,” a story about a group of Neapolitan teenagers that earned the Silver Bear for best screenplay at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival.

The film’s cast also includes Francesco Di Napoli (“Piranhas”), Giulia Ercolini, Aniello Arena (“Reality,” “Fiore”) and Francesca Montuori (“My Brilliant Friend”).

The 19th edition of the Rome Film Festival will take place from Oct. 16-27.