GOMORRAH
Italy, 2008, 135 minutes, Colour.
Toni Servillo, Gianfelice Imperato, Maria Nazionale.
Directed by Matteo Garrone.
This is not the most lucid of films. We admire the sincerity and courage that has gone into the making of it, the craft and the skill in working with many non-professional performers. However, with the decision to take five stories out of the many in Roberto Saviano’s 2006 best-seller (translated into 33 languages) and to intercut them, this structure has made it difficult to follow – plus the complication that many young Neapolitan thugs look much like the other and without a firm establishing of many of the supporting characters, it is difficult to distinguish one from another.
For non-Italian audiences, it might have been more helpful to have the five selected stories shown in their entirety one after the other. The press kit says that they are interconnected. In fact, episode after episode is not interconnected. They are simply juxtaposed. This means that we are following one of the stories and then it is left for twenty minutes or so while we pursue some of the others and so on.
However, the film creates a contemporary Gommorah atmosphere in the northern suburb of Naples, Scampia, which is notorious for its ugly estates, open drug-dealing, murders and control of everything by the Camorra – hence the play on names.
The five stories in themselves illustrate what Saviano (who has been under police protection since the publication) and Garrone wanted to show of the reality of the Camorra today, an often vicious world of blood, death and power. Again, the stories could have been developed more and characters probed. The story of Toto, a 13 year old boy is absorbing. He has to make a life and death decision but his story then ends. The story of a tailor who secretly trains Chinese immigrants is also interesting as is the expose of how the Camorra control the dumping of toxic waste in the south and are employed by many Italian companies. Perhaps the best written and dramatised is that of two young would-be independent thugs who imitate Pacino in Scarface, boldly rob a Columbian drug business, find a Camorra cache of arms and think they are kings of the world.
Sombre and alarming material.
1.The title of Gomorrah, the background of the Scriptures? A city to be destroyed? God’s anger with the city? The link with the Camorra and the Mafia control of Naples? The success of the book, the expose, the author and his needing police protection?
2.The reality of the Comorra, the suburb of Scampia, the open drugs market as shown, the importance of money, power? The number of brutal deaths? The Mafia control? Local Mafia, Italy-wide and, for example, the taking of toxic waste? Companies implicated? The international repercussions, the investing of money in legitimate businesses?
3.The settings, real, the estate, the interiors of the houses, the beaches, the factories, homes, bars? The musical score?
4.The structure: the five stories, were they interwoven as suggested or merely juxtaposed? The effect of the gaps between the parts of each story?
5.The documentary tone, the look, the feel?
6.Don Ciro, in himself, his visits, collecting money, giving out money on behalf of the Mafia, people’s reactions, his watching them, under orders, at the end, the battles, his wanting to take sides, people’s contempt of him? Lost?
7.Toto, his mother, age, the grocery deliveries, friendship with Maria, the monkey, the tip? Playing with children? His intentions, the background of the Mafia? The scene where he tested his bullet-proof jacket, the other children, a kind of rite of initiation? The dangers in the estate, Maria in the dark, the monkey? His being confronted, forced to make a decision about Maria’s death? His doing it? Not seeing him afterwards?
8.The two young men and their imitating Al Pacino in Scarface, their age, attitudes, lack of morals? Going to the drug dealers, robbing them? The chase? On the beach, living in the moment, finding the cache of guns, their shooting on the beach? Their being confronted, the local boss, their not wanting to obey? Their ambitions? The interview with the don, his giving them the job to kill someone, their following, the confrontation, the ambush and their deaths?
9.The issue of toxic waste, Don Franco, the old man as the boss, Roberto and his being employed? The contracts, the companies, the trucks, the poison? The crashes? The exchange of money? The poisoning of the countryside? Franco and his orders, collateral damage and deaths? Roberto, his wanting out, leaving?
10.The Colombian drug dealers, their presence in Italy?
11.The arms, the local boss, his pride, his attitude against the young boys, the don, his authority, setting up their deaths, the cover?
12.Don Pasquale, the tailor, beholden to the Mafia, his skills, the patterns? The Chinese and their factory? His going in the boot of the car, the money for his wife, instructing the Chinese? The crash, the death of the Chinese, his survival, hospital? The Mafia looking after him?
13.The cumulative effect of all these stories and a perspective on Italian corruption and the Camorra? A contemporary Gomorrah?
