05/09/2024 - VENICE 2024: Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza continue their reflection on the Mafia culture in Sicily, with Elio Germano in the shoes of a boss in hiding and Toni Servillo as a corrupt politician

Toni Servillo and Elio Germano in Sicilian Letters

The directorial duo composed of Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza made their debut in Cannes’ Critics’ Week in 2013 with Salvo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Fabio Grassadonia and Anton…
interview: Sara Serraiocco
film profile], a brilliant and creative modern western about a Mafia killer in Palermo who crosses paths with a young woman who’s been blind since birth. They subsequently returned with an astonishing, dark fairytale called Sicilian Ghost Story [+see also:
film review
trailer
making of
film profile], which saw them use fantasy to explore the brutal news story of a little boy who’d been cruelly kidnapped and killed (a film which opened Critics’ Week 2017). Their consistent journey of reflection on the evolution of the Mafia (sub)culture – as postmodern heirs to the great Italian cinema of civil engagement, coming courtesy of Giuliano Montaldo, Elio Petri and Francesco Rosi – has most recently led the two directors to write and direct Sicilian Letters [+see also:
trailer
interview: Fabio Grassadonia and Anton…
film profile], which is currently competing in the Venice Film Festival.

The present movie also sees them drawing inspiration from a recent news item: the years which the powerful Cosa Nostra boss, Matteo Messina Denaro spent on the run, having only been captured in January 2023 in a private clinic where he was being treated. Sicilian Letters delves into the paranoia which characterised his life in hiding, from where the criminal continued to exercise his power, dishing out orders and directions by way of pizzini (pieces of paper folded multiple times and delivered to his accomplices). But on this occasion, the directors explore the organic relationship between the Mafia and the ruling classes, or, to put it bluntly, the government who offer the bosses protection. Thanks to the performance of high-calibre protagonist Elio Germano, who’s always ready to delve into the deepest and darkest souls in his work, the boss hiding in the apartment of a blackmailed woman (Barbara Bobulova) is shown to us in all his repressed ferociousness, his fixations, his dedication to a past composed of inherited rites and rules and to a present full of suspicious caution aimed at maintaining power. He’s like a lion in a cage moving through Luca Bigazzi’s claustrophobic photography, not least in the hallucinatory flashbacks where young Matteo squares up to his father figure (who’s also on the run).

Elio Germano is supported by Toni Servillo (who are starring together for the very first time) in the shoes of Catello, a teacher and political man who was once close to the boss’s father and who was approached by the secret services once released from prison and asked to collaborate in the capture of his godson, Matteo, in exchange for permission to build an illegal hotel. Educated and ingenious Catello subsequently enters into a long-distance conversation with the fugitive boss, by way of lengthy letters aimed at bringing about a meeting between the two of them.

The investigation and the relationship between Servillo and his men are the least successful aspects of the film, despite the presence of the brilliant Fausto Russo Alessi (Tommaso Ragno and Antonia Truppo also star in the film’s excellent cast). The relationship which develops between Catello and the female detective (Daniela Marra) feels particularly ill-conceived and jarring. Given the vast quantity of fiction and non-fiction writing available, the equally vast volume of filmography on the subject, the millions of pages of criminal investigations and enquiries, and the thousands of hours of telephone tapping, it’s perfectly natural that there’s a loss of clarity and narrative concision, especially when the director is Sicilian and you “feel” the wounds suffered by your region more than others might. But this dark comedy ultimately concedes too much space to the investigative genre, meaning that the audience runs the risk of losing its way.

Sicilian Letters is an Italian-French co-production by Indigo Films together with RAI Cinema and Les Films du Losange. International sales fall to Les Films du Losange.

(Translated from Italian)

Photogallery 05/09/2024: Venice 2024 - Iddu

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Antonio Piazza, Fabio Grassadonia, Toni Servillo, Elio Germano, Daniela Marra
© 2024 Fabrizio de Gennaro for Cineuropa - fadege.it, @fadege.it