Anti-mafia journalist and scriptwriter Roberto Saviano dissects the complexities of how Italian film-makers portray the Cosa Nostra on screenYou wonīt recognise a member of the mafia. Whether youīre in Naples, Paris, London or Mexico City, you wouldnīt know the member of a crime syndicate from the next guy. Actually, itīs always been like that: the mafia have always looked exactly the same as their law-abiding neighbours. Omertā, or the code of silence, originates precisely from this - quite apart from the fear of retaliation, omertā begins from a natural inclination not to betray one of your own. By extension, this code of silence can afflict people, whether ordinary people or politicians, who donīt want to be told stories that clash with the picture-postcard image they would like to project of their own country.Back in 2009, it was Silvio Berlusconi who said: `If I find the man who made the new serial of La Piovra [The Octopus] and who writes books about the mafia which give us a bad name in the world, I swear I will throttle him.` It was an unfortunate choice of words, but it reflects what many Italian politicians think. It was [former prime minister] Matteo Renzi who labelled those, like myself, who abandoned the glowing narrative which had it that Italy had recovered from its economic crisis, `merchants of doom`. Continue reading...
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