Suburra.

This was for me, at least, the best film I had the pleasure of see at Glasgow Film Festival 2016, in fact it was probably the best film I have seen this year. It’s not often that you come out from a screening and want to go straight back in and watch the same movie again. Could I have just witnessed a masterpiece in Italian filmmaking? Beautifully made, intelligently scripted and magnificently acted each of the characters making the story totally believable. Suburra (2015) includes corrupt politics, drug taking and dealing, extreme violence, the Catholic Church and sex.

 

Corrupt politicians.... 

Set in 2011 this fast paced thriller is steeped in the crime and corruption found at the heart of modern Rome and deals with the connection between organised crime and politics. At the heart of the story is politician Filippo Magradi (Pierfrancesco Favino who played Marco Polo’s father in the recent TV miniseries of that name) who thinks nothing of heading straight from a parliamentary debate to a night of sex with two prostitutes, one of them underage. When the latter dies of an overdose, a chain of events are set in motion that will see Magradi drawn into a net woven by Samurai (Claudio Amendola), a former right-wing terrorist turned organized crime boss who looks more like a bank manager than the ‘families’ representative. The corruption between the various parties involved in the movie centers around the coastal town of Ostia, a piece of down-market real-estate that the Italian Parlamento is voting to turn into an Italian Los Vegas – or not. If the vote is positive the interested parties know there a lot of money to be made.  

 

....organised crime....

....sex and drugs.

This neo-noir is directed by Stefano Sollima who was responsible for directing the TV series Romanzo Criminale (2010) and Gomorrah (2014) and is based on a novel by Carlo Bonini and Giancarlo De Cataldo. The movies brilliant atmosphere draws you in and its pace keeps you there. The electronic soundtrack is by French duo M83 and really adds to the movies ambiance. The movie was financed by Netflix and RAI and is due for a cinematic release in the UK in May 2016. As you may have gathered I cannot heap enough praise on this movie and I would encourage you to make a real effort to see it – you won’t be disappointed.