Black Souls (2014)

I have to stop that thing where I watch movies knowing absolutely nothing about them because I wanted to watch a light movie (that's why I picked an Italian movie) and I ended up watching another heavy (third in three days) movie. But at least it was good. 

Black Souls (Anime nere) is indeed a compelling and gripping film about 'ndrangheta, the Calabrian crime network.

It's the story of three brothers, Luigi (Marco Leonardi), Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta) and Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane), who have settle into life after their father was murdered by a rival crime family. Luigi handles the family's drug business while keeping a low profile. Rocco has built his own business empire in Milan using drug money. Luciano has forsaken the family business and decided to spend his days farming. It will be Leo (Giuseppe Fumo), Luciano's son, to undermine the unstable balance of the family, drawn by the danger, money and power of his uncles.

I'm not a fan of gangster movies, but this one is different, a very unusual gangster movie. Francesco Munzi's film mainly focuses on the differences between the three brothers and on the family dynamics. Also, it doesn't show as much violence as your typical gangster movie does, but it rather focuses on the talking, and leaves the most brutal scenes to one's imagination.

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It's a hard-to-sit-through kind of story but the well written and developed characters will make it more bearable. And the acting helps a lot as well. The actors give solid and mannered performances that are never over the top like in American gangster movies. I really liked Barbora Bobuľová as Rocco's Milanese wife. Her character was also the only character it's possible to identify with and her performance delivers that uneasiness and inadequacy she feels around her husband's family beautifully.

Munzi's direction is pretty good too. He's able to engage with compelling storytelling and tension and delivers a dark and gloomy atmosphere that makes you feel as if you were living that reality.