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Mob Scenes

Based on the book "Gomorra" by journalist Roberto Saviano (who is living under police protection), Matteo Garrone's film "Gomorrah" is an unflinching and unglamorous look at the Neopolitan mafia: the Camorra. As the title suggests, the region under mob control is so hopelessly stained by crime and corruption as to require divine destruction to make things right.

"Gomorrah" is shot in a raw and realistic style that often resembles a documentary. Set in and around the tenement buildings of Scampia, a northern suburb of Naples, the action is based on real events and the cast is largely made up of non-professional actors.

Five different story lines are followed, featuring characters who are at various levels of involvement with, and enthusiasm for, the local Camorra. Two cocky teenagers, Marco and Ciro, romanticize the mob and want to become bosses themselves; Pasquale, a tailor at a small company who moonlights with the Chinese competitors; Toto, a 13-year-old, who is responsible but restless, and eager to impress the mob; Don Ciro, the money-carrier who, amongst other mysterious duties, pays off the families of mob-affiliated prisoners; Roberto, an idealistic university graduate who wants to make an honest living; and Franco, an older and cynical counterpoint to Roberto, who hires and trains him for a career in toxic waste management. 

The transport and disposal of toxic waste, one of many rackets controlled by the Camorra, serves as the film's underlying literal and metaphorical theme, as populations are poisoned by the insidious presence of organized crime as much as by buried toxins.

The teens Marco and Ciro, with their enamored references to Brian De Palma's "Scarface", embody the attitudes of Hollywood's gangster stereotype, which "Gomorrah" thoroughly discredits. They also provide some of the few comic moments in the film, such as their role-playing and shouts of "I am Tony Montana!" "No, I am Tony Montana!" After finding a stash of hidden weapons, the pair proceed to fire them haphazardly (and horrifically) while wading through wetland in their underwear.  

But there are no heroes or charismatic Corleones, wiseguys, or goodfellas in "Gomorrah". The community acts as if imprisoned, keeping its collective head down and paying off whoever it needs to for protection against the senseless and sudden violence that is nevertheless the norm. Even the villains are eventually at a loss, as the killings proceed from unseen sources towards arbitrary goals. When asked what they should do, one mobster's advice to another is to simply "make a lot of corpses" instead of "waiting to be killed."

Despite the stripped realism of "Gomorrah", there is a disorienting quality to the film, resulting from the necessary jumps between multiple story lines and lack of conventional exposition. This can make the action, particularly the discreet role Don Ciro plays within Comorra politics, difficult to follow. "Gomorrah's" hybrid genre, with the head of a documentary but the body of a film, or vice versa, may make some want to approach it with caution.

Can things change in this region, where conformity is the closest guarantee of safety? "We are the same," Franco tells Roberto, picking up a previously heard refrain, as he rationalizes the criminal elements in their work. Roberto objects, after dumping a crate of spoiled peaches by the side of the road. "I am different," he says. And maybe he is. The peaches were given to him by a demented old woman who thinks he is someone else. It's unclear if this should be taken as a sign of coming destruction or salvation.