This superbly suspenseful mafia drama – from Italian director Francesco Munzi (Saimir, The Rest of the Night) – recalls Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah.
It tells the story of three brothers from a Calabrian family. There’s charismatic Luigi, living in Amsterdam; Milan-based Rocco who oversees the family accounts; and Luciano, the eldest brother, who has withdrawn from the family’s crime syndicate to herd goats in the remote Aspromonte mountains. Luciano’s son Leo is nevertheless keen to enter the family business, and arrives in Milan demanding his uncles cut him in – but his rash behaviour will reignite an old, bitter feud with a rival family, forcing all three brothers to converge on their ancestral town as the feud threatens to turn to open war.
Bleakly affecting, it’s shot through with a pleasing realism; with impressive set pieces shot with style yet showing a very believable slice of life in a marginalised corner of rural Italy still governed by intimidation and violence.