gomorrah, or things you can do before 30
Posted by popkitchen | Filed under books, films, popcult
Encouraged by a few classes of Italian and previous knowledge of Spanish, I thought to myself “let’s watch a film in a movie theatre”. Italian, of course. I hate dubbed films. So, this spring, while I was in Florence, the first film I ever saw in Italian without subtitles was Gomorrah, directed by Mateo Garrone, based on the book of the same name by a journalist Roberto Saviano.
Was I surprised, when the actors in the film started talking in Neapolitan accent, completely incomprehensible even to Italian natives. My first film in Italian had subtitles.
Few days ago, Gomorrah picked up swept European Film Awards and it is lauded as a strong contender for the foreign film Oscar.
Film about mafia in Naples is everything but a classic mafia flick, the kind young wanna-be gangsters in the film watch and expect the real life to be like Scarface. Several stories, apparently not connected, but all leaving the traces of Camorra over the daily existence of the characters. Very bleak and detached, film is shot on original locations, which to a Western eye do not look like Italy (because, by default Italy is bella, not a landscape filled with half-finished houses, desolate beaches and landfills with toxic waste), more like a post-Soviet republic. For decades, Italy has been fighting the mob without success. The renaissance in Italian cinema is marked with the facing with the contemporary mores, as well as past ones. Like Gomorrah, which was a part of Cannes selection, Il Divo also shown in the Cannes, is a story of Giulio Anderotti, seven-time Italian Prime Minister, who went down in the nineties due to the alleged mafia connections, which in the end were never proved, while in the meantime Andreotti was chosen as a senator for life, giving him impunity from further prosecution.
After shocking killings of Judges Falcone and Borsellino in 1992 , as well as assassinations of several journalists, tackling mafia both it judicial system and media seemed to be an insurmountable task. Tenacity of a young journalist Roberto Saviano turned a book, based on his investigative pieces published in La Repubblica and L’esspreso, into a biggest bestseller. Then a critically praised film.
At the price of the freedom of the author himself. What I find truly astonishing is that Saviano is barely thirty and so accomplished, now forced to live with the constant threat to his life, as the mafia bosses announced that he will be killed by Christmas. He does not have a permanent place to live, moves surrounded by five bodyguards. The book, a blend of fiction and facts, was praised by the likes of Umberto Ecco, while Saviano himself was given advice on how to hold on by Salman Rushdie, who twenty years ago was in the same predicament.
Tags: films, gomorrah, italy, roberto saviano
December 10th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Gomorrah was not recommended us by Florence university. In fact when talking about it, they usually changed subject. Here City of God is studied in all levels by every comm school, is a frequent subject of debate even now. This fact will not change the immediate reality of Rio suburbs but it changes people’s sensibility towards the problem, and helps to improve citizenship. Or at least, makes Fernando Meirelles free to walk on streets and be recognized by his country fellows as a great movie maker, not only abroad. And the funny thing is that mobs here adore him, exactly as it happens with “buscapé” in his script.
But the final truth is that neapolitan can always be understood after 2 negronis… not just 1:)
December 11th, 2008 at 12:34 am
You know that the people you are talking about are living in a fantasy land. It is what we know of Italian university system, but it is not an example of it.
I just learned that City of God is also based on a book, which in turn is based on a real story. But, the difference is City of God deals with the crime on its lowest levels - the streets.
I haven’t read Saviano’s book, so I am not really in the position to make comparison, but from what I know about it, Gomorrah - the book is his investigative journalism thinly veiled into fiction. He names names, not the low level “soldiers” but the big Camorra bosses and Italy being the way it is - their reach is enormous, judges, politicians, police, other media, you name it. There is a history of assassinations of prominent people, who spoke against the mob. It is a state within a state, apparently it is estimated that Mafia in Italy participates in GDP more then Fiat.
And Italians know it. I mean, the ordinary people turned this book into a national bestseller, then into a film.
Thing is that I don’t know enough about crime in Brazil, except its “favela” aspect. How much it is confined to the ghettos and how much it plays a part in politics and economy in general (I am sure it does)? Is there a system based on hierarchy, family loyalty and ancient rules like Italian mafia? Or is it fragmented into sections, controlled by the local bosses, as it seems in City of God.
Which brings me to a new item on the agenda - organized crime in the world is all interconnected. Globalized. As explained in the book (next on my reading list) by this British guy, journalist, expert in …. guess what …the Balkans.
Mischa Glenny wrote McMafia and I dug out something just for you (15 min. video with Portuguese introduction)
http://video.globo.com/Videos/Player/Noticias/0,,GIM852228-7823-MISHA+GLENNY,00.html
Here he speaks about cyber crime in Sao Paolo
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao3kU2sRQpg&feature=related
December 11th, 2008 at 3:16 am
Nice considerations. And thanks for the links. I’ll watch the huge 20 min one later, as now I’m concerned with some classes. I’ll try to make a fast synopsis of what I understand about organized crime in Brasil, which is not enough to sustain a deep analysis, but it’s enough to show a little of Brazilian reality in this topic.
First distinction I think is important is that favelas is not a Brazilian phenomenon, it’s essentially a social/urban phenomenon that happens all over 3rd world countries (including updated emergents). But, maybe as football or beach culture, Brazil ended by branding it all over the world. The important is that violence and organized crime is not related to favelas substantial concept. But even here this relation violence/favela became a stereotyped image, in prejudice of real ways to solve favelas problem. In fact most of people that live in favelas have regular jobs and are standard families. But favelas are a very efficient place to hide mobs and crime offices, and also, as limited areas, have a low level of State presence, so it happens that some crime leaders live ‘legally’ in huge houses in fancy neighbours but ‘work’ in favelas. Unfortunately it generates also regular urban violence, which is not directly connected with the business of organized crimes as it with its ‘emotional branded’ culture.
Other distinction is that City of God is a picture of the beginning of organized crime history in Brasil. The script tell us a story that begins around 40 years ago, exactly in one of places that was an official laboratory to the ending of favelas as phenomenon (of course with bad planned and bad executed policies, so failed). But at that time there was anything so globalized as today, neither crime. The film shows its embryonic moment.
Nowadays, that social environment showed in the film became connected with the global cocaine route (and other drugs as well). It starts in north and west of continent, basically Colombia, Peru and Bolivia, get in Brasil through the huge border of amazon forest region, and get down to Rio and Sao Paulo where the money is. From here it goes to Europe and other destinations. US route does not pass through Rio, it goes directly from other departures in north of South America, what explains, in part, why US is concerned about Colombian crime and not Brazilian crime.
Italian Mafia has the role of receiving drugs coming from a lot of countries in the world, including South American’s through Brasil. Mafian connection in South America is not a new phenomenon, as you know that some important mafia bosses were caught in Brazil or Argentina, and as also you know, these two countries have an extravagant number of Italians living around. It’s easier to hide. In a general overview, Italian mafia injects money in Brazilian crime for drugs, as Russian, Japanese and others big groups in Europe and Asia. Also, in a peripheral way, they inject money for prostitution international organized groups, illegal wood from Amazon, and other stuffs. And the worst thing (for me) is that we allow it.
No, Brazilian organized crime does not have this Italian family system, nor the religious tradition that Italian’s has. It has shared commands among drugs enterprises all over Latin America. And even if here they have also some connection with a part of politics, you are right on that, it’s not a considerable part of our national or several state congresses.
Our biggest problem concerning politics is power/economic political corruption, which is much more spread through Brazilian culture, but not related with drugs. So, organized crime in Brazil is not nationally institutionalized as we imagine it is in Italy. This is also due to the fact that Brazilian political apparatus is not as centralized as in Italy.
And well, after the small video you sent…. yes, cyber punks rule (social inequality is a very complex situation also because it’s a strong tool to fake fair justifications).
ops… it came an over-long comment…