Gomorrah

This Italian film opens with a bunch of guys getting tanned and manicured together. Two guys pull guns and start blasting the other guys, spraying blood all over the salon. There are multiple local crime bosses, the Camorra, who take a fee on what people make. They get money from drug dealers, prostitutes, old people, whoever. That's how things operate in this area, I guess. Two local small-time kid drug runners hold up a larger operation and steal their drugs. Their local crime boss isn’t too happy about it, so these two kids think they’ll set up their own shop and be the bosses. The two wanna-be crime bosses steal some guns and go practice shooting in their funderoo’s at a lake – still not sure what that’s all about. The kids in this apartment complex are all in training to be runners and lackeys for the crime bosses. They run errands and get shot while wearing flak jackets and such to prove their manhood. Some friends end up being paired with different crime bosses and are forced to split their friendships over turf. There are all kinds of shootings in the apartment complex and some of the kids are forced into doing the dirty work. There are two side stories in the film as well: a cartel who disposes of toxic waste and also a tailor who sells his services to the Chinese. These things are unrelated to the main plot, but since the Camorra has their hand in these industries, I guess the directors felt they needed to include them in some way. I think this is sort of an expose on the Camorra, the mafia in Scampia – one of the largest drug trafficking areas in Italy. It’s pretty brutal, but it really doesn’t have much of a linear plot. It’s an interesting film, but really doesn’t have much plot to grasp onto. It’s not an uplifting film, since there’s a lot of shooting, including two of the main characters, but it is enlightening. It just kind of left me hanging.