| Gomorra | |
|---|---|
Gomorra Italian theatrical poster |
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| Directed by | Matteo Garrone |
| Produced by | Domenico Procacci |
| Written by | Matteo Garrone Roberto Saviano Maurizio Braucci Ugo Chiti Gianni Di Gregorio Massimo Gaudioso |
| Starring | Toni Servillo Gianfelice Imparato Maria Nazionale Salvatore Cantalupo Gigio Morra Salvatore Abruzzese Marco Macor Ciro Petrone Carmine Paternoster |
| Cinematography | Marco Onorato |
| Editing by | Marco Spoletini |
| Release date(s) | May 16, 2008 |
| Running time | 137 minutes |
| Country | Italy |
| Language | Italian Neapolitan |
| Budget | $6.2 million |
| Box office | $34,834,540 |
Gomorrah (Italian: Gomorra) is a 2008 Italian film directed by Matteo Garrone, based on the book by Roberto Saviano. It deals with the Casalesi clan, a crime syndicate within the Camorra — a traditional criminal organization based in Naples and Caserta, in the southern Italian region of Campania.
Contents |
The film opens with the shootings of gangsters relaxing in a tanning salon.
It then intertwines five separate stories of people whose lives are touched by organized crime.
Don Ciro
Don Ciro (Gianfelice Imparato) is a timid middleman who distributes money to the families of imprisoned clan members. After a feud develops within the clan, he is ambushed by two angry gangsters whilst making a delivery. Wanting to save his own skin, he later offers to defect to their side. They explain to him their families were murdered by the clan and want retribution, and that they have no need for a money-carrier. Instead, Ciro leads them to the location where he is given the money for distribution. The pair raid the place, killing everyone but Ciro, and take the money. Ciro quietly walks off to an uncertain future.
Totò
Totò (Salvatore Abruzzese) is a 13-year-old grocery delivery boy who observes some drug dealers ditch a bag of drugs and a gun when running from the police at Sette palazzi in Scampia. He returns the items to the gang, who take him in. His initiation in an underground cavern involves him being shot while wearing a bulletproof vest as a test of courage. As the feud develops, families in the neighborhood that are perceived to be disloyal receive a warning to move out or suffer violence; Totò's fellow gang members received similar threats. Later, while hanging out with his gang in the streets of Scampia, one of his gang is killed in a drive-by. The gang decides to stand their ground and exact violent retribution by selecting a woman, Maria (Maria Nazionale), as their next victim, because her son has joined a clan of Scissionisti di Secondigliano. Totò, who has delivered groceries to Maria, is forced to lure her out of her apartment, where his comrades execute her.
Roberto
Roberto (Carmine Paternoster) is a graduate who works in waste management. His boss Franco (Toni Servillo) illegally dumps toxic waste such as chromium and asbestos at sites such as disused quarries. During an operation, a drum of toxic chemicals is accidentally spilled on a driver. Franco refuses to call an ambulance, and when the workers refuse to handle the waste, Franco instead hires children to drive the trucks. When he sees firsthand the harmful effects of illegal toxic waste dumping on people's health, Roberto can no longer contain his disgust and quits.
Pasquale
Pasquale (Salvatore Cantalupo) is an haute couture tailor who works for Iavarone (Gigio Morra), a garment factory owner with ties to the Camorra. Pasquale takes a night-job training Chinese garment workers. Because they are competing with Camorra-controlled firms, the Chinese drive him to and from work in the trunk of their car. His secret work is discovered nonetheless, and on a ride home two gunmen on a scooter open fire on the car. He survives but feels forced to abandon his career, taking a job as a truck driver. At a truck stop one night, he sees Scarlett Johansson on TV wearing one of his dresses.
Marco and Sweet Pea
Marco (Marco Macor) and Ciro (Ciro Petrone) are two cocky, out of control, teenage wannabe-gangsters who try to operate a small racket independent of the local clan. Full of youthful exuberance and impressed with mafia portrayals from Hollywood movies, they quote lines and spontaneously reenact scenes from Scarface in Walter Schiavone's villa while dropping references to Tony Montana, Miami, and Colombians. Their first score is sticking up African immigrants during a drug purchase at the famous Hotel Boomerang, Castel Volturno. The word of the incident gets to the local mob chieftain Giovanni (Giovanni Venosa, later arrested for trying to extract a pizzo - mafia tax - from businesses in the Caserta region), who summons them and warns them under threat of violence not to repeat such behavior in the future. Ignoring him completely, they spy Camorra gangsters hiding a stash of weapons. They steal the weapons and amuse themselves by firing off rounds by the banks of a Regi Lagni canal estuary in the marshland. One day, out of money, they use their guns to rob a video arcade. They spend their money at a strip club, where the angry gangsters find them and threaten to kill them if they don't return the weapons within a day. The pair prove stubborn, so Zio (uncle) Vittorio (Vittorio Russo), one of the local gangsters tries a different tactic: he approaches them in a bar with an offer to come work for him. He offers them €10,000 if they return the weapons and conduct a murder of Peppe O'Cavallaro, in fact uncle Bernardino (Bernardino Terracciano, later seized on suspicion of extorting protection money and having ties to the Casalesi clan, part of the Camorra mafia). They accept the offer, which turns out to be a trap, as they are ambushed and killed by Giovanni, Bernardino, Vittorio and others at the location of their supposed target, an abandoned beach resort next to Regi Lagni canal estuary, and the last scene shows their bodies being taken away by a bulldozer.
At the end of the film, statements are made regarding the activities of the Camorra. One allegation is that illicit money is being laundered through the rebuilding of the World Trade Center, "Gains from illegal activities are reinvested in legal ones worldwide .. The Camorra has also invested in the reconstruction of the Twin Towers". The film does not outline the actual mechanism of money laundering with respect to the reconstruction of the Twin Towers. The buildings and land at the site are owned and controlled by Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Larry Silverstein. Silverstein is using his $4.55 billion insurance payout from the September 11 attacks for the reconstruction.
Gomorrah has received widespread critical acclaim. Review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 91% based on reviews from 137 critics, with an average score of 7.7/10.[1] Metacritic gave the film a weighted score of 87/100, based on 30 critiques, which it ranks as "universal acclaim".[2] In reviewing Garrone's film based on the book, Christoph Huber wrote: "With its interest in moving beyond the categories of novel or non-fiction, Saviano's work has been identified as part of a heterogeneous strain of national literature, subsumed as the New Italian Epic. A term that certainly isn't disgraced by Gomorrah, the film.".[3]
The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.[4]
The movie was premiered in North America on September 7, 2008 at the Toronto International Film Festival. It was nominated for the Palme d'Or and won the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. It won the Ari-Zeiss Award at the Munich Film Festival.[5] The film was chosen by the National Association of Cinemagraphic Industries to represent Italy in contention for Best Foreign Language Film at the 81st Academy Awards. Despite the earlier success at Cannes, and defying expectations, it failed to be short-listed.[6] On December 11, Gomorra was given a Golden Globe nomination for Best Foreign Film. Gomorra won five awards at the 2008 European Film Awards, including Best European Film in Copenhagen on December 6, 2008.[7] The film also received seven awards at the 2009 David di Donatello Awards (Italian version of the Oscars).[8]
The film, following the book it is based on, portrays events identifiably similar to actual historical ones; compare the Scampia feud. In the film's credits, the filmmakers thank the districts of Scampia and Torre del Greco, as well as the district and police force (Carabinieri) of nearby Boscoreale; these three suburban areas around the Bay of Naples feature cityscapes appropriate for filming this story. Also, the scene at the truck stop where Scarlett Johansson is seen wearing one of the tailor's dresses is based on a portion of the book where Angelina Jolie wore a counterfeit dress to the Oscars. Garrone could not obtain that footage from the Academy and was forced to use this footage of Johansson at the Venice Film Festival in 2006 (even though reports indicate this was a vintage gown).[9]
| Awards | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by The Mourning Forest |
Grand Prix, Cannes 2008 |
Succeeded by A Prophet |
| Preceded by 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days |
European Film Award for Best European Film 2008 |
Succeeded by The White Ribbon |
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