Gomorrah

Review by Anthony Morris

It has been a long, long time since a movie - or any other work of fiction - about the Mafia has packed half the punch of Gomorrah. 

Based on the expose written by journalist Roberto Savino (now living in hiding from death threats), this gritty, cliche-free collection of small scale stories set in and around the Neapolitan region of Italy avoids the now standard traps and trappings of the mafia story.

Somehow it manages to present the viewer with a shockingly unvarnished and unsentimental look at the corrosive effects organised crime can have on a society. 

There is no honour or respect here: brutal thugs kill at will while the community at large staggers under the cost. 

Rather than the heroic myths of resistance or rising to the top, the events here present a much starker range of choices: join, flee, or be crushed. 

Whether it is the two teenagers who try to live out their Scarface fantasies, the aging bagman who finds his job carried less respect with each day, the young kid who wants in, the young man who finds himself working for a politician running a toxic waste dumping-scam or the tailor for the fashion industry who becomes a mob target - the story remains the same. 

Gomorrah is the kind of film that opens your eyes to the fantasies that films usually deal in, and while it is hardly a pleasant reality, there is no denying the force or the power with which it's expressed here. 

This is one of the films of the year.

5 out of 5

Gomorrah
Australian release: 14th May, 2009
Official Site: Gomorrah
Cast: Salvatore Abruzzese, Simone Sacchettino, Salvatore Ruocco, Vincenzo Fabricino
Director: Matteo Garrone