Plot
Don Lorenzo Borrelli (Fabrizio Bentivoglio) is a priest in a poor neighborhood in Naples where Mafia killings are a daily occurrence and most young people see organized crime as a way to earn respect. Don Borelli tries as best as he can to persuade the adolescents that the Camorra is at odds with Catholicism, but has to learn that nothing will change as long as their parents silently accept the Mafia supremacy.
Borrelli's personal life centers on his relationship with a 13-year-old choir boy, Nunzio Pianese (Emanuele Gargiulo), who is not only strikingly handsome but also a very talented musician. Nunzio plans on becoming a priest as well, as the easy life of a priest without worries about the future appeals to him.
The mobsters figure that a child molestation charge is a convenient way to get rid of the incendiary Don Lorenzo and try to get the local authorities to investigate. Meanwhile, Nunzio begins to doubt if he should stay his course or give in to the pressure to denounce Don Lorenzo.
The Camorra is an Italian Mafia-type criminal organization and criminal society originating in the region of Campania. It is one of the oldest and largest criminal organizations in Italy, dating to the 17th century. The Camorra's organizational structure is divided into individual groups called "clans". Every capo or "boss" is the head of a clan, in which there may be tens or hundreds of affiliates, depending on the clan's power and structure. The Camorra's main businesses are drug trafficking, racketeering, counterfeiting, and money laundering. It is also not unusual for Camorra clans to infiltrate the politics of their respective areas.
Michele Zaza was a member of the Camorra criminal organisation who was also initiated in the Sicilian Mafia. He headed the Zaza clan in Naples. Zaza was known as ’O Pazzo due to his outspoken and implausible public statements. He was one of the first Camorristi to emerge as a powerful organiser of the cigarette contraband industry in the 1960s and 1970s.
Organized crime in Italy and its criminal organizations have been prevalent in Italy, especially Southern Italy, for centuries and have affected the social and economic life of many Italian regions since at least the 19th century. There are six major native mafia-like organizations that are heavily active in Italy. The oldest and most powerful of these organizations, having begun to develop between 1500 and 1800, are the 'Ndrangheta from Calabria, the Cosa Nostra from Sicily and the Camorra based in Campania. In addition to these three long-established organizations, there are also three other significantly active organized crime syndicates that were founded in the 20th century: the Stidda of Sicily, and the Sacra Corona Unita and Società foggiana, both from Apulia.
Fabrizio Bentivoglio is an Italian cinema and theatre actor and screenwriter.
The Di Lauro clan is an Italian crime clan, part of the Camorra in Naples. The clan operates in the neighbourhoods of Secondigliano, Scampìa, Miano, Marianella, Piscinola, and in the adjacent municipalities of Casavatore, Melito, Arzano, Villaricca and Mugnano. At its peak, between the mid-1990s and the early 2000s, the organization was earning more than €500,000 a day from the sale of drugs alone, making Secondigliano the largest open-air drug market in Europe. The founder of the clan is Paolo Di Lauro, from Via Cupa dell'Arco, in Secondigliano.
Luigi Giuliano is a former Italian Camorrista who was the boss of the powerful Giuliano clan based in the district of Forcella, Naples. He had multiple nicknames including "'o rre" and "Lovigino", which is an amalgamation of Luigi and love. In 2002, he decided to collaborate with Italian law enforcement and became a pentito, a co-operating witness against organised crime.
The Nuvoletta clan was a powerful Neapolitan Camorra clan operating from the town of Marano di Napoli, situated on the northern outskirts of the city of Naples, southern Italy. The Nuvolettas belonged to a new style of Camorra, one that had the dimensions of a large corporation, and considered much more entrepreneurial. The clan was affiliated with several Sicilian Mafia families and was considered one of the most powerful Camorra clans between the 1970s and 1990s, however, since the death of its historical leaders and the large number of arrests and seizures made by the Italian police, the clan was succeeded by the Polverino and Orlando clans, both families with great degree of kinship with the Nuvoletta family.
The Scissionisti di Secondigliano or Amato-Pagano clan is a Camorra clan from the Secondigliano district of Naples, headed by Raffaele Amato and Cesare Pagano. They are also known as "Spagnoli" (Spaniards) because of their strong presence in Spain, particularly in Costa del Sol and Barcelona.
Raffaele Amato is an Italian Camorra boss and head of the Amato-pagano clan, a Camorra clan from Naples. He is known by multiple nicknames in the Neapolitan criminal underworld, including "Lo Spagnolo", "'o Lell", "Lell o' chiatt'" and "'a vecchiarella".
The 53rd annual Venice International Film Festival was held between 28 August to 7 September 1996.
Cosimo Di Lauro was an Italian Camorrista who was acting boss of the Di Lauro clan from Naples. Due to his flamboyant nature and passion for designer clothes, he earned the nickname "The Designer Don". Di Lauro is known by some as "o' Chiatto", and to journalists as the "prince regent".
Giuseppe Diana, also known as Father Peppino, was an Italian writer, a scout, and a Roman Catholic priest in Casal di Principe. He was killed by the Camorra.
The Baltimore Crew was an Italian American organized crime group that ultimately became a faction of the Gambino crime family operating in the port city of Baltimore, Maryland, from about 1900 until the 1990s. It was originally an independent organization led by the D'Urso family until the Corbi takeover in the 1920s. In 1955, Vincent Mangano of the New York–based Gambino family moved in and installed Louis Morici as the reigning caporegime over the area. The Corbi family acquiesced to the Gambino relationship, but maintained local leadership, simply answering to and accessing support from Morici and his New York Gambino connections. Throughout most of its existence, after 1920, "The Baltimore Cosca" was functionally headed by the Corbi family: Vito, and then his sons, Pasquale "Patsy" and Frank.
Antonio Capuano is an Italian film director and screenwriter.
The Aprea-Cuccaro clan is a Camorra clan operating in the area of Barra, in the city of Naples.
The murder of Simonetta Lamberti took place in Cava de' Tirreni, Italy, on 29 May 1982. The victim, the 11-year-old daughter of magistrate Alfonso Lamberti (1937-2015), was killed during an attack targeting her father, at the time prosecutor of Sala Consilina.
