[6] In 1938, Dominic Matei, a 70-year-old professor of linguistics in Piatra Neamț, travels to Bucharest, where he met the love of his youth, Laura.

Feeling that his fruitless search for the origin of human language has condemned him to a solitary, wasted life, Dominic wants to commit suicide.

As Romania is invaded by Nazi Germany, Doktor Josef Rudolf begins to show an interest in Dominic, who is residing at the home of Professor Stanciulescu and has developed a talent for speaking in tongues.

Since Dominic's budding powers blurred his perception of reality, he is bamboozled into mistaking a Nazi spy for an erotic fantasy.

Rudolf argues that Dominic's existence supports the Nazis' ideal of the superman, and that the coming nuclear conflicts can only be survived by a superior species of man.

Having realised that the lightning strike partially lent him the capacities and knowledge of future humanity, he develops a secret language for his audio diary, to be deciphered long after the nuclear apocalypse.

Suspecting that Veronica may now be afflicted with a condition similar to his own, Dominic calls the Roman College of Oriental Studies for aid.

Since the location of Rupini's cave is unknown, the scholars, led by Professor Giuseppe Tucci, agree to fund an expedition to find it in India.

Nuclear warfare will unleash an electromagnetic pulse, giving birth to a new and powerful human species.

Outraged at the idea of sacrificing millions of lives in the name of evolution, Dominic shatters the mirror.

While debating on whether to finance Megalopolis with his own money from his winery and resort company, Coppola was given by his close friend Wendy Doniger, a University of Chicago professor, some books she deemed relevant for his dream project's themes, including Eliade's novella.

Identifying with the novella's plot of a 70 year old man struggling to complete an ambitious project of his own, Coppola opted to temporarily shelve Megalopolis to "rest a bit" and self-finance a film adaptation of Youth Without Youth with the intent of making it "the opposite of Megalopolis and "feel empowered" with 1$ million cash he had available.

Coppola proceeded to set up a production office at the Bucharest pharmaceutical company of a friend of his, holding auditions for actors and cinematographers amid different stores.

The site's critical consensus reads: "Although visually appealing, Coppola's latest film mixes too many genres with a very confusing plot".

[13] The New York Times gave it high praise, writing: "In this film Mr. Coppola blurs dreams and everyday life and suggests that through visual and narrative experimentation he has begun the search for new ways of making meaning, new holy places for him and for us.

[15] Rex Reed panned the film, writing: "You know a movie is doomed when the only star in it is Tim Roth.

What other major American director would throw out studio money just to scamper around Europe re-living the years of his father's prime?

"[17] In 2024, Francis Ford Coppola revealed during an interview with Rolling Stone that Youth Without Youth wasn't meant to be successful but a "test" for himself to teach him what really means making a movie, as he had "sort of retired" from being a professional director since The Rainmaker (1997) and instead be a student who could discover what making movies consisted by self-financing "very small, low-budget" films and even organizing unusual rehearsals during which he learned a lot about acting.