NZIFF Film Review: "Suburra" (2015).

"Rome will fall" in Suburra. This Italian neo-noir mafia crime film directed by Stefano Sollima, adapted by Stefano Rulli, Sandro Petraglia, Carlo Bonini, and Giancarlo De Cataldo, and based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Carlo Bonini and Giancarlo De Cataldo. Inspired by true events from the Mafia Capitale, a gangster known as "Samurai" wants to turn the waterfront of Rome into a new Las Vegas. All the local mob bosses have agreed to work for this common goal. But peace is not to last long.

The crime organization, the Mafia Capitale, and its subsequent investigation of its criminal activities involving the government of Rome, in which members stole money destined for city services and carried out other criminal activities such as racketeering, conspiracy, loan-sharking, extortion, drug trafficking, fraud, money laundering, illegal works, bribery. It operated in the city of Rome and the region of Lazio. A police investigation by Rome's chief prosecutor Giuseppe Pignatone, revealed a network of corrupt relationships between some politicians and criminals in the Italian capital. The criminal actions took advantage of the recent influx of immigrants to Italy, gaining public contracts to manage migrant reception centres. The criminal organization also used its connections to secure lucrative public contracts, before accepting payments for substandard or, sometimes, non-existent services. Among those investigated are former mayor Gianni Alemanno and the bosses Salvatore Buzzi and Massimo Carminati, a member of the Banda della Magliana, as well as members of the 'Ndrangheta. A twelve-hundred-page arrest warrant was issued in December 2014, and was followed by dozens of arrests. Among those investigated and arrested of the government of the city were the president of Rome's city council, the head of the city's public-housing division, and the former president of Ostia. In mid December 2015, Alemanno was indicted for corruption and illicit financing. According to the accusation, Alemanno received €125,000 euros from the cooperatives' boss Salvatore Buzzi. In early February 2017, the allegation of an external cooperation in a mafia association was filed, including the allegations of corruption and illicit funding. In late July 2017, Carminati was sentenced to twenty years in jail, along with other various sentences of his associates. In early September 2018, on appeal, Carminati was sentenced to fourteen years and six months, with Buzzi sentenced to eighteen years and four months.

The film stars Pierfrancesco Favino, Elio Germano, Claudio Amendola, Alessandro Borghi, Greta Scarano, and Giulia Elettra Gorietti. The cast themselves body and soul to characters that are not easy to interpret, and even if they do sometimes fall into stereotypical and archetypal territory.

Though less subversive than other films of the genre, Suburra succeeds as a stylish, dynamic thriller—even if its amoral machismo makes for grim viewing. The film was tense, tough, and shockingly ruthless at times. The film emerges as a dynamic action drama in its own right. Solima, who has primarily worked in Italian crime thrillers, brings a run-and-gun humanity to this, suggesting complexities of Italian society where the first film defaulted to moody hellscapery.

Simon says Suburra receives:

Also, see my NZIFF review for Miss Europe (Prix de beauté).