Il prefetto di ferro | |
---|---|
Directed by | Pasquale Squitieri |
Written by | Ugo Pirro |
Starring | Claudia Cardinale |
Cinematography | Silvano Ippoliti |
Edited by | Ruggero Mastroianni |
Music by | Ennio Morricone |
Release date |
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Country | Italy |
Language | Italian |
Il prefetto di ferro (internationally released as I Am the Law and The Iron Prefect) is a 1977 Italian drama film directed by Pasquale Squitieri. The film tells the story of Cesare Mori, an Italian prefect that before and during the Fascist period was best known as "the Iron Prefect", and it is based on the biographic book with the same name written by Arrigo Petacco. [1] The film shared with In nome del Papa Re the 1978 David di Donatello for Best Film. [2] The film was well-received but also criticized for subtly downplaying Mori's fascism.
In 1925, Prefect Cesare Mori is sent by Mussolini to Palermo with special powers to fight the Mafia. Mori is not a Fascist, having fought against the ras Arpinati in the early twenties. Aided by police officer Francesco Spanò, he visits the house of mafia boss Antonio Capecelatro, and shoots him dead with a headshot on his balcony. He later organizes the siege of the town of Gangi, which culminates with the arrest and suicide of Don Calogero Albanese, fugitive for more than 40 years. The Prefect continues, undaunted in his work, frightening the Mafiosi who are trying to kill him.
Through the will left by an old man living in the poorhouse, he becomes acquainted with the lawyer Galli, chief hierarch of the Sicilian Fascists and the Minister of the Interior. Mori is appointed as a senator and leaves for Rome.
Wild East released this on a limited edition R0 NTSC DVD under its English title "I Am the Law" alongside The Day of the Owl, under the title "Mafia", in 2010.
The film was released on Blu-ray under the English title The Iron Prefect by UK distributor Radiance in July 2023.
Giuseppe "Pino" Donaggio is an Italian musician, singer, and composer of film and television scores. A classically-trained violinist, Donaggio is known for his collaborations with director Brian De Palma, and for his work in both European and American genre cinema. He has won two Italian Golden Globe Awards, and has been nominated for two David di Donatello, four Golden Ciak, two Nastro d'Argento, and a Saturn Award.
Vito Cascio Ferro or Vito Cascioferro, also known as Don Vito, was an Italian criminal who was a prominent member of the Sicilian Mafia. He also operated for several years in the United States. He is often depicted as the "boss of bosses", although such a position does not exist in the loose structure of Cosa Nostra in Sicily.
Cesare Mori was a prefect (prefetto) before and during the Italian Fascism period. He is known in Italy as the "Iron Prefect" because of his iron-fisted campaigns against Sicilian Mafia in the second half of the 1920s.
The Sicilian Mafia Commission, known as Commissione or Cupola, is a body of leading Sicilian Mafia members who decide on important questions concerning the actions of, and settling disputes within the Sicilian Mafia or Cosa Nostra. It is composed of representatives of a mandamento who are called capo mandamento or rappresentante. The Commission is not a central government of the Mafia, but a representative mechanism for consultation of independent Mafia families who decide by consensus. Its primary role is to keep the use of violence among families within limits tolerable to the public and political authorities.
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Pasqualina "Lina" Sastri is an Italian actress and singer.
Pasquale Squitieri was an Italian film director and screenwriter.
The Sicilian Mafia was less active during the era of Fascist Italy and it was fought by Benito Mussolini's government. In June 1924, Mussolini instructed Cesare Mori to eradicate the Mafia from Sicily and on October 25, 1925, appointed Mori prefect of the Sicilian capital, Palermo.
The organization officially known as Volante Rossa "Martiri Partigiani", often mentioned simply as Volante Rossa, was a clandestine antifascist paramilitary organization active in and around Milan in the postwar to the Second World War, from 1945 to 1949. Led by "tenente Alvaro", nom-de-guerre of Giulio Paggio, it was made up of communist partisans and workers who aimed with their actions to build a continuity with the wartime action of the Italian Resistance.
Giorgio Marengo, I.M.C. is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. Created a cardinal by Pope Francis on 27 August 2022, he has been the Apostolic Prefect of Ulaanbaatar, a missionary jurisdiction that covers the entire country of Mongolia, since 2 April 2020.
Giovanni Battista Marziali was an Italian Fascist politician and civil servant, who served as prefect in several Italian cities, including Milan, Naples, Palermo and Bolzano.
Antonino Di Giorgio was an Italian general and politician, who fought in the First Italo-Ethiopian War, the Italo-Turkish War and the First World War, and served as Minister of War of the Kingdom of Italy from April 1924 to April 1925. He resigned after the rejection of his plan for a radical reform of the Royal Italian Army.
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