Gomorra (Gomorrah)
2008
**
Director: Matteo Garrone
Cast: Toni Servillo, Gianfelice Imparato, Maria Nazionale, Salvatore Cantalupo, Gigio Morra, Salvatore Abruzzese, Marco Macor, Ciro Petrone, Carmine Paternoster
Roberto Saviani’s 2006 book charts the mechanics of the Camorra. Matteo Garrone’s gritty, award winning adaptation illustrates the crime organisation’s comprehensive stranglehold on the region around Naples, Italy. His intentions are commendable, but the film is a long and dull exposé which engages the mind but nothing else. Half a dozen main characters find themselves between a rock and a hard place, but they are either unsympathetic or uninteresting, and it’s impossible to feel sorry for any of them.
