Gomorrah (film)

Gomorrah
Gomorrah Italian theatrical poster
Directed by	Matteo Garrone
Written by	Matteo Garrone Roberto Saviano Maurizio Braucci Ugo Chiti Gianni Di Gregorio Massimo Gaudioso
Produced by	Domenico Procacci
Starring	Toni Servillo Gianfelice Imparato Maria Nazionale Salvatore Cantalupo Gigio Morra Salvatore Abruzzese Marco Macor Ciro Petrone Carmine Paternoster
Cinematography	Marco Onorato
Edited by	Marco Spoletini
Release date	May 16, 2008 (2008-05-16) (Italy) February 13, 2009 (2009-02-13) (USA)
Running time	137 minutes
Country	Italy
Languages	Italian Neapolitan
Budget	$6.2 million
Box office	$34,834,540

Gomorrah (Gomorra in Italian) is a 2008 award-winning Italian film directed by Matteo Garrone, based on the book by Roberto Saviano. It deals with the Neapolitan crime syndicate known as the Camorra, which is based in Naples and Caserta in the southern Italian region of Campania.

Plot

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 (Gianfelice Imparato) is a timid middleman who distributes money to the families of imprisoned clan members. When making a delivery, he is ambushed by two angry secessionists with an obvious grudge against their former clan; there is a feud within the clan. 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 (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. He returns the items to the gang, who take him in. His initiation involves him being shot while wearing a bulletproof vest, as a test of courage. Soon after he is accepted into the gang, 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, 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 Simone has joined a secessionist gang. Totò, who used to be friends with Simone before the clan feud, and who has delivered groceries to Maria, is forced to lure her out of her apartment, where his comrades gun her down.

Roberto (Carmine Paternoster) is a graduate who works in toxic waste management. His boss Franco (Toni Servillo) illegally dumps the waste in 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 (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 and leaves town, taking a job as a truck driver. At a truck stop, he sees Scarlett Johansson on TV wearing one of his dresses.

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 while dropping references to Tony Montana, Miami, and Colombians. Their first score is taking more narcotics than they paid for during a drug purchase from some Africans. The word of the incident gets to the local mob chieftain 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 canal 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 one of the local bosses tries a different tactic: he approaches them in a bar with an offer to come work for him. When they refuse he offers them €10,000 euros if they return the weapons and conduct a murder. They accept the offer, which turns out to be a trap, as they are ambushed and killed at the location of their supposed target. The credits roll to the song "Herculaneum" by the British group Massive Attack.

Allegations Regarding Money Laundering in Twin Towers

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.

Critical reception

Gomorra received positive reviews from critics. As of November 20, 2009, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported 106 positive reviews and 11 negative, giving the film an 91% critical approval rating.

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.".

Top ten lists

The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.

• 2nd - Josh Rosenblatt, The Austin Chronicle
• 5th - Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times (tied with Happy-Go-Lucky)
• 5th - Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly
• 5th - Marc Savlov, The Austin Chronicle
• 6th - Wesley Morris, The Boston Globe
• 7th - Marjorie Baumgarten, The Austin Chronicle
• 10th - Empire

Awards and nominations

The movie was premiered in North America 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. 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. 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 6 December 2008. The film also received seven awards at the 2009 David di Donatello Awards (Italian version of the Oscars).

Historical basis

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 tailors dresses is based of 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).

Soundtrack

• "Macchina 50", Rosario Miraggio
• "Esageratamente", Anthony
• "La nostra storia", Raffaello
• "O' schiavo e o' re", Nino D'Angelo
• "Ma si vene stasera", Alessio
• "Xiao cheng gu shi", Teresa Teng
• "Brava gente", Nino D'Angelo
• "Must pray", Pieter Vercampt
• "Sadeness (Part I)", Enigma
• "I feel the love", Lovematic
• "Play my music", Sandy Chambers
• "Un giorno d'amore", Daniele Stefani
• "L'amica di mia moglie", Tommy Riccio
• "Herculaneum", Massive Attack

External links

• Official Site in English
• Official Site in Italian
• Gomorra at IMDb
• Gomorra at Rotten Tomatoes
• Gomorra at AllMovie