root for "Gomorrah": yay Garrone! Win the Cannes Film Festival!

It won the Grand Jury prize!

Well, the Cannes Film Festival ends today (and it’s raining, as it always happens when all the yachts and the private jets in the world concentrate in this area for the festival), and the odds are good for Garrone’s movie.
It is based on Roberto Saviano’s bestselling semi-fictional story about mafia from Naples (camorra) and the way it took the place of the state in vast areas of the region and beyond: the guys run very profitable (and clear) businesses in Scotland, for instance, so don’t think it’s an “Italian” problem. You can read about the book and the devastating effect it had on its author’s life on the NYT or The Guardian.

Back to the movie: the “journalistic” investigation was sacrificed in the script, so if you look for facts and figures, you’ll have to read the book. Still, the movie will make you understand how bad and depressed the situation really is—especially if you are wondering how all that trash could pile up in Naples: here’s partially your answer. And, on a more superficial level, it is a refreshing change from your usual mob movie: there’s no easy money here, no villas, no fancy cars. Here organized crime is the only chance for those who were born in hell, and in hell will rot.

If Gomorrah wins the Cannes Film Festival, it will be also a tribute to the bravery of Roberto Saviano, who defied those hideous criminals, and keeps on doing so by surviving all the death threats that camorra has pubicly made against him. This is my small personal tribute to the guy. Read the book. Watch the movie. Somebody payed with his freedom to tell you this story: it is worth knowing.