Salvo.

We first meet Salvo, a Mafia Hitman, during a 40c heat wave in Palermo as his boss Randisi is driving him to his latest assignment.  The car comes under attack in a very well planed ambush. Salvo goes after the attackers killing one but capturing a second who is forced to tell who set up the ambush before being executed. There’s a debt to settle and Salvo is sent to extract vengeance on Renato Pizzuto. When the hit man arrives at the much-feared rival’s house he only finds his blind sister Rita at home. Holding her captive until Pizzuto returns when he is able to complete his task. But for some reason he is unable to bring himself to kill the dead mans sister, instead he spares her life and takes her to a disused industrial estate and locks her up. But by lying to his boss, he tells him he has killed both siblings, he sets up an unexpected chain of events.

 

The mafia hitman Salvo.

The very brave Rita.

Directors Fabio Grasadonia and Antonio Piazza, who also wrote the story, present us with a movie that is slow paced, with very little dialog but this does not detract from your enjoyment of this meaningful film. Basically it’s a tale of two very different human beings. Salvo, whose strong physical presence is brilliantly portrayed by the Palestinian actor Saleh Bakri, is a character that say’s very little, a hard man whom never smiles and kills without a second thought. The directors/writers admit taking their inspiration for this individual from Jean-Pierre Melville Le Samourai starring Alain Delon. Another influence was the Spaghetti Western that can be easily spotted in the showdown in the industrial estate.  The dancer Sara Serraiocco, in her first feature film, plays the blind Rita with exceptional believability and as I said in my review for the UK Premiere for Greyhawk (2013) it’s never easy for an able sighted person to convincingly play a blind character.  Topping off this highly recommended film is the cinematography of Daniele Cipri whose camera angles give the film a certain unique style of its own.