Gomorrah - Journey into the realm of the Camorra

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Movie
German title Gomorrah - Journey into the realm of the Camorra
Original title Gomorrah
Gomorrah (film) Logo.png
Country of production Italy
original language Neapolitan , with Italian subtitles
Publishing year 2008
length 135 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Matteo Garrone
script Matteo Garrone
Roberto Saviano
Maurizio Braucci
Ugo Chiti
Gianni Di Gregorio
Massimo Gaudioso
production Domenico Procacci
camera Marco Onorato
cut Marco Spoletini
occupation

Gomorrah - Journey into the Realm of the Camorra is an Italian fiction film by the director Matteo Garrone from 2008. The film deals with the Camorra in the Italian city of Naples and is based on the original of the same name by the author Roberto Saviano . The film premiered at the Cannes International Film Festival in 2008 . The film opened in German cinemas on September 11, 2008.

action

The film is set in the Italian city of Naples and the Campania region , which includes the provinces of Caserta and Naples . People's lives are dominated by power, money and blood and are firmly in the hands of the Camorra .

Gomorrah consists of five storylines, two of which (Totò and Don Ciro) are closely interwoven while the others are independent of each other.

Storia di Totò

In the socially deprived area of ​​Scampìa , the Scissionisti di Secondigliano and Clan Di Lauro feud. Thirteen-year-old Totò grows up in this environment, under the spell of a promising future in the world of organized crime. Since his father is in prison, the livelihood of Totò and his mother is financed by the Di Lauro clan: the clan pays them what is known as the mesata , a kind of pension. Totò also decides to work for the Clan Di Lauro , while his best friend Simone joins the Scissionisti. In order not to get between the fronts of these clans, the two have to end their friendship. Totò is initially used as a drug courier and guard. To prove that he really wants to work for the clan, he is supposed to lure Simone's mother Maria into an ambush. He tries in vain to at least postpone her killing.

Storia di Don Ciro e Maria

This storyline deals with the so-called Faida di Scampia , the feud between the two rival clans. This aspect is shown primarily in Don Ciro and Maria.

Don Ciro is an accountant for the Camorra. He pays the relatives of dead or imprisoned members of the family clan money to support them, the so-called semmana , and in this role he has to go from house to house in the neighborhood. As the violence escalates and the situation in the neighborhood worsens, payments are becoming scarcer and renegades are no longer receiving any money. Due to the increasing rivalry between the clans, Don Ciro also gets caught between the fronts, he is attacked and finally witnessed a murder, so that in the end he only dares to go out on the street with a protective vest and prefer to get another job from his boss would. Finally, after several threats, Don Ciro betrays his clan to the rival side. In return, he is spared when members of the Di Lauro clan are executed.

Maria, who also receives the monthly payments from the Di Lauro clan, is killed after initially receiving no more money as a warning because her son Simone has switched to the Scissionisti clan.

Storia di Franco e Roberto

Franco is an entrepreneur in the field of toxic waste disposal. He offers a northern Italian group the disposal of their waste at halved costs and with all official certifications. The entrepreneurs accept, knowing full well, that the disposal will take place in illegal landfills in Campania . Franco and his technically experienced henchman Roberto try to find a suitable place for disposal. The choice finally falls on a quarry.

During an accident involving the poison barrels in this quarry, several workers are injured by caustic acid. The remaining truck drivers protest and there is a tumult. Going back to work is out of the question. Without further ado, Franco hires children between the ages of eight and ten who bring the trucks with their loads to their destination and dump them there.

A family of small landowners in financial difficulties offers Franco their land. There are toxic waste barrels are deposited. The family receives one hundred euros for every truckload of barrels. After a visit there, the old farmer gives Roberto a box of peaches. On the way back, Franco instructs Roberto to throw them away, as the peaches supposedly stink, but it is clear that these are contaminated by toxic waste. Disgusted by the situation, Roberto turns away from Franco and gets out, although Franco wants to convince him that her work is necessary for the economic upswing in Campania and that it would also secure jobs in the rest of Italy. Roberto walks down a lonely street while Franco returns to the car.

Storia di Pasquale

Pasquale is a tailor for haute couture in a small factory and is considered the creative head of the company, for which he still only works black for a starvation wage, while his employer is under pressure from the Camorra. He is recruited by a Chinese entrepreneur who wants to pay him two thousand euros per lesson for the secret training of Chinese workers. These workers shower him with applause and honors. Since this company is in competition with the Camorra, the Chinese drive Pasquale to their factory in the trunk of a car. Nevertheless, the Camorra learns of Pasquale's “betrayal” and, as a warning, carries out an attack on the car that is transporting him. Due to his many years of loyal service, he was allowed to survive, but gave up the tailoring trade and instead hired himself out for the clan as a truck driver. On the way he sees the actress Scarlett Johansson on television on the red carpet of the Venice Film Festival , wearing a dress that he had previously made.

Based on this storyline, the film shows, on the one hand, the merciless and Camorra-controlled competition of the tailoring workshops for the orders of the famous fashion houses, and on the other hand, the attempt by Chinese textile producers to gain a foothold in the haute couture market.

Storia di Marco e Ciro

Marco and Ciro are two young offenders from the Clan dei Casalesi environment . They dream of being powerful gangsters one day and act out scenes from the film Scarface . When they stole drugs in a robbery on their own account, the powerful Camorra bosses warn them. However, this is rejected by the two. Then they dig up a hidden arsenal of Camorra weapons . Shortly afterwards they get a second warning: they should return the weapons. But they neither bring the weapons back nor end their raids. They are eventually lured into a trap by one of the members of the clan and executed.

realization

The cinematic implementation of parts of the book does not want to gloss over anything, but relentlessly depict the everyday reality in the Camorra's sphere of influence. Nevertheless, the film refrains from an interpretation or comment and a moral evaluation or even accusation, but instead uses the five individual episodes to highlight various aspects of the "Camorra" system and its influence on people's lives. This does not create an idealized or transfigured image the godparents and their criminal organization; rather, the focus is on the reality of life in poorer social classes and the lower hierarchical levels of the Camorra, which are observed soberly in an almost documentary way.

Screenplay and its differences from non-fiction

Even if the film is classified in the fictional film genre, it is based exclusively on real events and the research of the author Roberto Saviano. For example, the murder of Maria is based on the murder of Carmela Attrice, the mother of an apostate. Saviano told the episode about the tailor Pasquale himself, while the Storia di Franco e Roberto is based on the author's own experiences: by chance he met the stakeholder Franco and accompanied him for some time, with Saviano giving detailed insights into the business of illegal waste disposal could.

There are differences between book and film in terms of intention and presentation. Both media are not in competition with each other, but complement each other. The book is primarily a documentation and aims to reveal the economic and organizational structures of the Camorra. Business connections of the system are analyzed as well as the social dimension, i. H. the infiltration of society by organized crime. It wants to inform, names names, and accuses. The mechanisms of organized crime are examined primarily from the perspective of business.

The film, on the other hand, is not a report, for this reason - unlike in the book - there is no first-person narrator. The focus is on the human aspect: on people and their emotions, on their decisions and the associated consequences. This creates portraits of characters who are involved in or entangled in the system in various ways. Reality is represented by means of scenes that are fictional, but could just as easily have happened because the principle on which they are based is true. The actress Maria Nazionale says that “everything you see in the film is made up of fragments of the truth”. The aim was to “present this system from within. 'Gomorrah' is not a film against the Camorra, but a film about the Camorra. ”The portrayal of the people and their fates should appeal to the viewer on an emotional level, bring the contents of the book closer to them using the power of the images. The book explains, 'makes you know', the film deepens this knowledge by linking it with feelings.

According to the book, Garrone tried to incorporate Angelina Jolie's archive material into his film on the red carpet at the Academy Awards . The material was not approved by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , so the director used recordings by Scarlett Johansson as part of the Venice Film Festival . Johansson only found out about the use of her picture after the film was released.

Filming

Much of the film was shot in authentic locations, for example in the Naples suburb of Scampia , where the run-down high-rise Le Vele (so called because of its sails-like silhouette) stands, or in the outskirts of the city. As the director Matteo Garrone explains, no money was paid to film on the original locations. For security reasons, however, the correct title was not given during the recording, instead it was filmed under the code name Sei storie brevi (German: Six Short Stories) and it was said that the film was inspired by current events from the news. Despite this precaution, it was known to be Gomorrah . Initially, the clans wanted to read the script and veto it, but there were never any incidents. The Camorra 'approved' the shooting, so to speak, because after a lot of negative headlines, it was likely that a positive media response came in handy. In addition, the cinema exerts a great attraction on the people, so that they were excited to be involved in the realization. They were used as extras or took on (secondary) roles, gave the film team tips or assessed the authenticity of the scenes filmed on the camera's monitor.

Design aspects

In addition to the cameraman Marco Onorato, the director Matteo Garrone often filmed himself. By using a hand-held camera in many scenes, he was able to stay close to the action, which - especially in turbulent sequences - gives the audience a sense of closeness. This effect is also achieved through many close-ups. Garrone wanted to use the pictures to reflect the feelings of the characters, for example the use of many long shots in the scenes with Marco and Ciro should suggest a feeling of freedom and symbolize their lack of submission.

The set was never additionally illuminated during outdoor shots. Pale colors reinforce the feeling of desolation that already arises from the choice of locations. Long sequences with as few cuts as possible were preferred. The nested montage is intended to indicate the similarly organized structure of the Camorra. The fragmentation of the narrative means that the viewer cannot easily follow the individual storylines: this is also an analogy to reality, in which the microcosm of organized crime appears opaque to outsiders.

The direction Garrones is very sober and gives the actors a lot of leeway in shaping the role, which increases the credibility of the scenes. The amateur actors in particular did not have to act, they were simply allowed to be themselves.

actor

In addition to professional actors, many roles in the film have been cast by amateur actors from the area, for example the boy Totò or the young people Marco and Ciro. Some of them had already worked in amateur theater projects and Ä. participated, but for others it was the first acting experience. Some of these actors are even more or less closely related to the Camorra, one of them has been serving a two-year prison sentence since July 2008, another was arrested on October 11, 2008. What they all have in common is that they were mostly cast on location and are familiar with the milieu, which has helped to make the presentation as realistic as possible.

language

Another factor contributing to the authenticity is that in the original Italian version all actors speak as they do in real life (sociolinguistic aspect). The Neapolitan dialect is predominantly spoken, but there are also regional variants. Marco and Ciro make fun of the fact that the boss who threatens them speaks the dialect of Casal di Principe . In addition, many expressions and phrases from local organized crime jargon are used. In Italy the film was shown with written subtitles.

Film music

The music used in Gomorrah is so-called on-music , i.e. music that is heard by the people in the action, for example on the car radio. These are mainly neo-melodic canzoni by Neapolitan interpreters, such as a. Raffaello, Alessio and Rosario Miraggio . The fact that only sounds and music from the environment were used gives the viewer the feeling of being closer to the scene of the action. In some places, the Italo pop music stands in stark contrast to brutal scenes, which appear everyday and banal and thus make the violence even more haunting.

In order not to influence the viewer in the interpretation of the plot, Garrone deliberately did not use film music in the narrower sense that comments or interprets the plot and dialogues. He reported in an interview that adding a soundtrack to the film (i.e. off-music ) would have turned it "into a comedy", as the emotional impact on the viewer would have contradicted the message of the images. The only exception is the instrumental piece Herculaneum , which was specially composed for the end credits of the film by Robert Del Naja and Neil Davidge .

Soundtrack

  • Macchina 50 , Rosario Miraggio
  • Esageratamente , Anthony
  • La nostra storia , Raffaello
  • O 'schiavo eo' re , Nino D'Angelo
  • Ma si vene stasera , Alessio
  • Xiao cheng gu shi , Teresa Teng
  • Brava gente , Nino D'Angelo
  • Must pray , Pieter Vercampt
  • Sadeness (Part I) , Enigma
  • I feel the love , Lovematic
  • Play my music , Sandy Chambers
  • Un giorno d'amore , Daniele Stefani
  • L'amica di mia moglie , Tommy Riccio
  • Herculaneum , Massive Attack

Reviews

In Italy

The Italian weekly L'Espresso wrote in its May 22nd, 2008 edition: “Gomorrah, a wonderful film, is the opposite of the book. [...] While the book informs and reveals, accuses and protests, the film is an anthropological study, [...] an analysis of crime as a form of existence and a way of life. "

In the German-language press

Susan Vahabzadeh was not impressed by the film adaptation of the non-fiction book in the Süddeutsche Zeitung . She criticized the director telling the stories from the book “after, interwoven, but he has nothing to add to them.” In the daily newspaper Cristina Nord also emphasized the narrative handling of the criminal organization: “'Gomorrah' is not a loud film Outrage, but of cold registration. ”Dominik Kamalzadeh emphasizes the cinematic implementation of the non-fiction book in Der Standard and praises the“ often visually astounding settings that expand the social realism of the film in an almost surreal way. ”The film received mostly positive reviews. In the Austrian daily Kurier, Julia Pühringer praised the Camorra's "completely unruly, and at the same time unpretentiously imaginative presentation" and sums it up: "What a film."

Awards

Gomorrah was nominated for the Golden Palm in Cannes in 2008 and won the Grand Jury Prize presented by Roman Polański . In addition, Gomorrah won the “Premio città di Roma - Arcobaleno Latino” 2008, an award that was suggested by the Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo and is intended to honor high-quality feature films. The award was received by Matteo Garrone on May 23, 2008 in Cannes.

Gomorrah was awarded the David di Donatello for best Italian film . In addition, the director Matteo Garrone received the Italian film prize “Premio Palmi 2008” for his work in July. On September 24, 2008, ANICA, the national association of Italian film producers, unanimously selected Gomorrah to represent Italy at the next Academy Awards in the category of Best Foreign Film.

When the nominations for the European Film Awards 2008 were announced , Garrones Film received five nominations and led the field of favorites together with his compatriot Paolo Sorrentino ( Il Divo ). At the award ceremony on December 6, 2008, the film was able to convert all of its nominations into victories and Gomorrah received the award for the best European film of the year, director, actor ( Toni Servillo ), screenplay and camera.

As part of the Frankfurt Book Fair 2008, Roberto Saviano and Matteo Garrone received the award for the best international literary adaptation. The award, endowed with 10,000 euros, was presented to Saviano on October 17, 2008 in the Alte Oper, with Volker Schlöndorff giving the laudation. At the Munich Film Festival in 2008, Gomorrah was awarded the Arri Zeiss Prize for best international film . The jury based its judgment on the fact that the film paints a " frightening portrait of a community in our day and age ".

The film received a nomination in the category Best Foreign Language Film at the Golden Globe Awards 2009 .

Distribution and Post-History

During the shooting, various scenes were secretly filmed with a video camera or video cell phone and posted on YouTube. Fictitious titles were used to deliberately create the impression that they were recordings of real crimes.

On November 20, 2008, the Turin daily La Stampa announced that Camorra was offering black copies of the film for six euros per DVD a few weeks before the official market sale. In general, the "Camorra-AG" (see article) have black copies made in China, where they invest money from criminal transactions.

At the beginning of January 2009 it was announced that in autumn 2008 the two actors Bernardino Terracciano and Salvatore Fabbricino and around Christmas time the actor Giovanni Venosa (as Camorra boss) from the film Gomorrah were arrested for membership in the Camorra and for various crimes. The three arrested are Camorra members who have already had a criminal record and who have pursued their usual criminal activities after their film experience, including drug trafficking and collecting protection money .

literature

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Certificate of Release for Gomorrah - Journey to the Realm of Camorra . Voluntary self-regulation of the film industry , September 2008 (PDF; test number: 115 139 K).
  2. ↑ a b film review: puddles of blood . the daily newspaper , May 19, 2008
  3. ↑ a b Frank DiGiacomo: Oscar Crime: Gomorra Shoulda Been a Contender. In: Vanity Fair . February 26, 2009, archived from the original on June 14, 2011 ; accessed on September 17, 2010 (English).
  4. ^ Napoli, agguato a Scampia, la faida uccide un'altra donna .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: La Repubblica , January 15, 2005 (Italian)@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.repubblica.it  
  5. ^ Roberto Saviano: Gomorrah. Journey into the realm of Camorra , Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-446-20949-7 , pp. 41-55
  6. ^ Roberto Saviano: Gomorrah. Journey to the realm of the Camorra. Carl Hanser Verlag, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-446-20949-7 , pp. 349-355
  7. ↑ See, lineadombra.wordpress.com, June 6, 2008, (Italian). A shortened German version of the interview can be found here: Interview with Matteo Garrone ( Memento of the original from September 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , filmering.at, August 7, 2008 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.filmering.at
  8. ↑ Interview: "Napoli non è tutta so": "Tutto quello che vediamo nel film è composto da frammenti di verità."
  9. ↑ Interview with Matteo Garrone: "I wanted to tell you that in reality there is a gray area." Kinofenster.de, August 26, 2008
  10. ↑ Peter von Becker: “A Season in Hell” , Tagesspiegel, September 9, 2008
  11. ↑ It was planned to film six individual stories, but the sixth was never realized. This episode was supposed to be about Christian and Serena, but would have exceeded the time frame of the film. Source: “Matteo Garrone racconta il suo 'Gomorra'” , www.robertosaviano.com
  12. ↑ Interview with Roberto Saviano in the Magazine des Corriere della Sera on May 13, 2008
  13. ↑ "Produzioni: Gomorra" , La Repubblica, October 6, 2007, (Italian)
  14. ↑ Interview "ancora su Gomorra" ( memento from June 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) with Maurizio Braucci and Matteo Garrone (in Italian)
  15. ^ Gomorrah, arrestato il boss che interpretava se stesso . In: Corriere della Sera , June 4, 2008
  16. ↑ Nuovo lightning contro i Casalesi - arrestato un attore di "Gomorrah" . In: La Repubblica , October 11, 2008
  17. ↑ Alexander Smoltczyk: Manicured corpses . In: Der Spiegel . No. 37 , 2008, p. 158 ( online - lots of information about the shooting).
  18. ↑ Interview with Matteo Garrone ( Memento of the original from September 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , filmering.at, August 7, 2008  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.filmering.at
  19. ↑ Lietta Tornabuoni: Vivere e morire a Gomorra , in: L'Espresso dal 22 maggio 2008; “ Gomorra è il contrario del libro […] Se il libro informa e rivela, denuncia e protesta, il film è un lavoro antropologico […], un'analisi della criminalità come modo di essere e di vivere […]. ”
  20. ↑ That little bit of magic . sueddeutsche.de , May 21, 2008; Movie review
  21. ↑ Wayward looks at reality . Der Standard , May 19, 2008; Movie review
  22. ↑ Gomorrah - Mafias from Cannes . ( Memento of July 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Courier (daily newspaper) ; Movie review
  23. ↑ “ The premio è un riconoscimento […] per valorizzare un cinema che privilegi la dimensione culturale, l'intelligenza del pubblico, l'intrattenimento qualito, le personalità degli autori, la diversità degli stili e dei linguaggi della cultura latina. ”Quoted from: persinsala.it
  24. ^ Munich Film Festival: Julie Christie awarded . paz-online.de, June 27, 2008; Retrieved September 25, 2008
  25. ↑ Filmato killer in azione su Youtube . ( Memento of the original from June 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. tgcom.mediaset.it, June 1, 2007 and Altri tre Spezzoni di Gomorra finiscono in rete su YouTube . ( Memento of the original from June 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. La Repubblica , June 4, 2007 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.tgcom.mediaset.it @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / espresso.repubblica.it
  26. ↑ Mafia makes money on anti-Mafia film . Tagesspiegel , November 20, 2008
  27. ↑ Camorra, so there are arrestati tre attori del cast di 'Gomorrah' . Il Giornale , January 4th, 2009
    'Gomorrah' performers arrested. Movie-ready mafiosi . Süddeutsche Zeitung , January 5, 2009 and
    Annette Langer : Mafia actors behind bars because of Camorra connection . Spiegel Online , January 13, 2009