Mafia Is Not What It Used to Be

A look at Palermo that is grotesque and truthful at the same time. The forgetfulness (or the code of silence) of a city that no longer remembers the great tragedies caused by the mafia. Photographer Letizia Battaglia represents honesty, the life force of the cry against the mafia (although her figure is much better portrayed in "Shooting the Mafia" (Kim Longinotto, 2019)), while Ciccio Mira is the caricature of the henchman who is al at the same time pathetic and dangerous. There is an evident staging in some of the most comical moments of the documentary, but after all Franco Maresco makes "opinion" films that use a sense of humor to offer the most extravagant image of dark Sicily, as in " Belluscone. A Sicilian storia "(2014). A sharp and satirical documentary.