Crítica serie: Desorden público
por Vittoria Scarpa
- Trece años después de la película A.C.A.B., la serie dirigida por Michele Alhaique se centra en el conflicto interior de los antidisturbios y en el límite entre uso legítimo e ilegítimo de la fuerza

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From a novel to a film and from a film to a TV series… After Romanzo criminale [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Michele Placido
ficha de la película], Gomorrah and Suburra [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Stefano Sollima
ficha de la película], Cattleya is once again transposing a story from a successful novel to the small screen in the form of Public Disorder, the new series which the production company founded by Riccardo Tozzi is launching on Netflix from 15 January. Journalist Carlo Bonini’s homonymous book, published in 2009, previously inspired the 2012 film A.C.A.B. – All Cops Are Bastards [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
entrevista: Stefano Sollima
ficha de la película], directed by Stefano Sollima. And now, thirteen years later, the ups and downs of the Italian “mobile units” – police officers responsible for maintaining law and order in town squares during demonstrations, with all the potential for violence and moral dilemmas this may entail – are returning to the small screen in a six-episode story, under the direction of Michele Alhaique (Senza nessuna pietà [+lee también:
crítica
tráiler
ficha de la película] and the series Bang Bang Baby [+lee también:
crítica
ficha de la serie] and Romulus) and boasting Sollima himself as executive producer.
But something has changed since Bonini wrote his book: the police - who were recovering from the disasterous G8 in Genoa at the time, and the “Mexican butchery” they meted out in the Armando Diaz school - have subsequently introduced bodycams, training on maintaining law and order, and the admission of women into their “mobile units”. Marta (played by Valentina Bellè) is one of these “sons of bitches riot police” who take the lead in this series. Alongside her squad mates, Mazinga (Marco Giallini, who starred in Sollima’s movie), Salvatore (Pierluigi Gigante) and Pietro (Fabrizio Nardi), this young, single mother, armed with a helmet, shield and truncheon, takes on NO TAV protesters in the Susa Valley. Following ferocious clashes, an officer and a protester are left lying seriously injured on the ground. It’s at this point that the Italian law enforcement agency, DIGOS, begins its investigation (“They haven’t come to our unit since Diaz”, a police officer reminds us) to find out what happened and to determine whether excessive force was used. In the meantime, a new commander takes over leadership of the unit: Michele (Adriano Giannini) has a more progressive and less violent approach towards maintaining law and order, and sparks will subsequently fly between “old school” supporters (Mazinga in particular) and this newcomer.
The line between order and chaos, and security and freedom, and the boundary between the legitimate and illegitimate use of force are at the heart of this story, which also tries to drill down into the psyches of its characters, following them in their more or less happy private lives and the conflicts they experience when they remove their uniform. “Police officers are trapped in bipolar lives dominated by the paradox that, in order to restore order, they’re required to use instruments and methods which continually put laws and morals to the test. Our series investigates the human and social consequences of this dangerous contradiction”, series creators Carlo Bonini and Filippo Gravino explain, in reference to this high-testosterone (also vis-a-vis the female protagonist) and immersive action-crime offering. The riot squad is a kind of tribe: they protect one another; but the series avoids passing judgement. The hypnotic music produced by Mokadelic (who previously signed their names to the brilliant music gracing the TV series Gomorrah, among other works) is too overbearing - it seems Alhaique’s aim was to create a non-naturalistic mise en scène and to follow the characters’ inner actions. Overall, the result isn’t particularly compelling, but it’s decidedly timely, given the public and political debate currently raging over the violent clashes which took place just three days ago between protesters and the police in various Italian cities, following the death of a 19-year-old Egyptian man during a police chase in Milan.
Public Disorder (A.C.A.B.) was produced by Cattleya on behalf of Netflix.
(Traducción del italiano)
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