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Sicilian Letters

This Italian Film Festival offering is a post-mafia story from writer/director pair, Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza. Ex-school principal and local politician, Catello (Toni Servillo) is released from prison in the early 2000s, only to be co-opted by the Italian Secret Service to help apprehend the last Cosa Nostra boss still at large, Matteo Messina Denaro (Elio Germano).

Catello is the perfect patsy. He was a good friend of Denaro's father, Don Gaetano, who made Catello the Godfather to young Matteo. I should mention this is based loosely on the life of Denaro, though it's at pains to acknowledge that much of this story is fabricated (a title card reads "Loosely inspired by real events, though the film's characters are the fruits of the authors' imagination.")

In this chunk of Denaro's life on the run, Catello is tasked with writing letters to the fugitive, via a bespoke butcher-based post office. Initially, Denaro is moved by Catello's prose and his lauding of Don Gaetano, and so encourages his entreaties. Things become a bit bent when a whiff of corruption within the police force tingles the nostrils, but even more so when Catello gets Denaro's son involved.

The performances are fine - Servillo delivers another sublimely slimy character, and Germano (memorable in Suburra) carries mild menace. Unfortunately, many of the other parts are played with too much cliche or just a bit too much wood, Daniela Marra (as officer Rita Mancuso) in particular.

Essentially, Piazza and Grassadonia were on a hiding to nothing in trying to make a film about writing letters. It seems Denaro's life on the lam had more than enough excitement to turn out an interesting film, but maybe all those had been done before (I assume Netflix has a monopoly).

Sicilian Letters is playing at the St. Ali Italian Film Festival in September and October around Australia (check local screens in your city). In Perth, the festival runs from Sep 25 to Oct 22 at Palace and Luna cinemas.

See also:

Germano stars in Stefano Sollima's Suburra (2015), a vastly more vibrant mafia film. Servillo is great in Paolo Sorrentino's Il Divo (2008).

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