A man makes a drug deal on a luxury boathouse in Amsterdam. Another manages accounts in an expensive Milan apartment. The third, the eldest, herds goats on an eerie mountainside in the Aspromonte region of Calabria. Together, these three men make up the Carbone brothers, part of the ‘Ndrangheta, Calabria’s powerful mafia and the largest criminal organsisation in the world.
Francesco Munzi’s vision of an Italian crime family explores the endless cycle of the pointless violence in which their activity results and the inextricable links that bind its members. Luigi (Marco Leonardi – a grown up teenage Totò from Cinema Paradiso) leads the family’s illegal activity while his older brother Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta) takes a back seat in Milan. Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane) has seemingly removed himself from the situation altogether by herding his goats in the mountains, futilely hoping that his son, Leo (Giuseppe Fumo), will do the same. When Leo makes the reckless decision to carry out a shooting of a rival family’s bar, the foundation on which the Carbone brother's structure is built begins its journey towards collapse and tragedy.
FILM REVIEW:
ANIME NERE
Ellie Hill reviews Francesco Munzi’s 2014 film Anime Nere, which tells a dark and brooding story of three brothers growing up in Calabria’s ‘Ndrangheta mafia. Although the Ndrangheta organisation does not attract as much media attention, it is estimated to be the world’s largest organised crime operation.
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