Suburra, the film on mafia and corruption in Rome, by Italian director Stefano Sollima with Pierfrancesco Favino, will be screened at Curzon Cinema Soho on Tuesday 14 June 2016.
In ancient Rome the suburra (from Latin sub-urbe) was a large and densely populated neighbourhood whose inhabitants lived in miserable conditions. Noble senators used to meet in secret with criminals to do dodgy business. Nowadays the word stands still for an area with bad reputation and literally translates to ‘slums’.
The story is based on a book by the same name, written by Giancarlo De Cataldo and Carlo Bonini. The writers call the novel a ‘journey into the black heart of Rome, uncovering and bringing to light many of the current scandals, well in advance of their making headlines in the international press, from the New York Times to the BBC to the Guardian’.
November 2011, the apocalypse is ready to hit Rome: the pope wants to resign, the government is falling into pieces and the criminal organisations that control the capital are split because a big deal is probably going to fail.
Actor Pierfancesco Favino is a currupt member of Parliament that makes agreements with Samuraii (Claudio Amendola), a former member of the Magliana Gang. Numero 8 (Alessandaro Borghi) is the head of a powerful family that runs the territory, while Sebastiano (Elio Germano) is a young depraved event organizer.
But the two main characters that stand out in this film are Rome and especially Ostia, a seaside town outside of the capital that in the movie is set to be transformed into a gambling paradise like Las Vegas. All roads lead to Rome and so mafia hit those streets as well. A dark atmosphere that goes along with surreal electronic music by French group M83 shadows the splendour of ancient Rome.
So far not many films have shown how mafia controls the capital and not only Southern Italia cities. Suburra is the portrait of a humanity driven by money and obscure ambitions, in which the law of the strongest prevails.
The movie is neither pompous nor prude, there are just facts: violence caudes death. Sollima, a well-established director since his successful TV series based on Romanzo criminale and Gomorra, has often been accused of creating negative heroes. The truth is that there are no heroes in Suburra, neither positive nor negative. The city is drifting and so every man goes for himself.
The series lovers will be glad to know that the film is set to be turned into a 10-episode TV series to be produced by Italian TV and movie producer, Cattleya, in collaboration with Italian public service broadcaster, Rai. The series Suburra will premiere globally on Netflix in 2017.
The premiere of the film at Curzon Cinema will be followed by Q&A with Stefano Sollima and Pierfrancesco Favino. By June 24 the film will be in the UK cinemas.
To reserve your ticket visit Curzon Cinema website.
