/ Director
Ricky Tognazzi
/ Cast
Luigi Lo Cascio, Luigi Maria Burruano, Lucia Sardo, Paolo Briguglia, Tony Sperandeo
/ Length
114 min.
/ Year
2000
/ Sponsor
San Diego Italian Film Festival
Date :: Thursday, June 17, 2010
Time :: 7:00 pm
Location :: MoPA in Balboa Park
Cost :: $5 donnation suggested
Language :: Italian with English subtitles
I Cento Passi
100 Steps
Less is known or said of others, common citizens and anti-mafia activists such as the young magistrate Rosario Livatino, Peppino Impastato, Placido Rizzotto, Don Giuseppe Puglisi and Rita Atria (the subject of the recently released La siciliana ribelle). These individuals acted locally, within their immediate communities to oppose the dominion of the mafia by opening the doors on an often insular culture and defy a code of silence (omertà) that has historically been a defense against outsiders.
With I cento passi Marco Tullio Giordana brings to the screen the life of the young Sicilian and anti-mafia activist Peppino Impastato. Living a mere one hundred steps from the home of a well-known Mafia boss, the young Impastato rebels against the quiet acceptance of that presence that monitors and controls the life of his city. His task is made that much harder by the fact that many of the people he and his family know and deal with, including his own father, are in some manner involved with the Mafia. One of the film’s most significant suggestions is that Impastato and his young friends and followers represent a danger to the Mafia not for expressing their dissatisfaction, but for communicating it beyond the closed society in which they live. Through the use of their own radio station, music, poetry, rallies and other manifestations Impastato begins to point to a world of possibilities outside of what the Mafia offers and, by doing that, brings unwanted attention to their limitations and oppressive nature.
It is quite significant that these films make their appearance at a time in Italian history when the center left holds governmental power for 5 years (1996-2001) after having defeated the first short-lived Berlusconi government. That period, which received a positive review from the International Monetary Fund for the improved economic and development situation in the country, seems to have also offered the opportunity to bring to light the struggle and courage of every-day people in opposition to well-rooted corruption and criminality.
The recent publication of Roberto Saviano’s book Gomorra (2006), and Matteo Garrone’s 2008 film version by the same name, represent a milepost of sorts in the long struggle against organized crime in Italy. Criminal organizations such as the Camorra, the ‘ndrangheta and the Mafia have long been a blight on Italian society. The mistaken notion that their violence was internal to their organizations and that “good people” who were not involved were most likely never to have to come face to face with that reality has repeatedly been broken by highly visible and impactful incidents. Saviano based his book on actual Judicial records not merely to reveal single crimes and their perpetrators but to point out the insidious nature of criminal organizations and a whole series of connections by which the Camorra, like the Mafia and ‘ndrangheta, has infiltrated every aspect of private and public life.
The films in this “Anti-Mafia Mini-series” presented by the San Diego Italian Film Festival testify to the long-standing struggle against organized crime. La Scorta (1993), I Cento Passi (2000) and Alla Luce del Sole (2005) form part of a subgenre of Italian cinema that has come to be labeled "political film". The Neapolitan film-maker Francesco Rosi is acknowledged as one of the fathers of the genre, having made among others Hands Over the City (1963), The Mattei Affair (1972) and Salvatore Giuliano (1974) all of which in some way explored the extent of corruption in the Italian political milieu and its collusion with organized criminality. More recent films, such as the ones in our series, and Alessandro Di Robilant’s Il giudice ragazzino (1994), Pasquale Scimeca’s Placido Rizzotto (2000) and Marco Amenta’s La siciliana ribelle (2009) have also joined the ranks of the political film genre with what can more accurately be termed anti-mafia films.
One particularly important trait of these films is that they make known the names and stories of ordinary, every-day people in their struggle against organized crime.
BRANDING: MIRIELLO GRAFICO // WEB DESIGN + MARKETING: JACOB TYLER CREATIVE GROUP
Login
Register