Date :: Thursday, August 19

Time :: 7:00 PM

Location :: MoPA, Balboa Park

Cost :: $5 Suggested Donation

Language :: Italian with English subtitles

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.