For your Mafia fix, a fictionalized factual story from the fatherland, focused on (at the start) the ten-year-old daughter of a soon murdered mob boss, slowly simmering her revenge for seven years under instruction from her older brother, keeping meticulous diaries the whole while, never letting on her intentions to the rival boss responsible, and then upon the brother’s murder turning state’s evidence in a massive sweep of the Sicilian syndicate. The fictionalization, however much it might deviate from the facts, never stretches beyond the life-sized, as best exemplified in the stout peasanty body, the thick coarse bristly hair, and the fierce frowny face of the seventeen-year-old heroine, an indelible portrait from the unknown and unactressy Veronica D’Agostino. And there awaits no grander a climax than her defiant entry into the courtroom and her impromptu tour of it for direct eye contact with each of the accused. In isolation, this would not look like that big a thing. But in proportion — and everything in a movie is a matter of proportion — it’s grand enough. The final resolution of the case, still steadfastly life-sized, is a bit less grand though no less affecting. With Gerard Jugnot, Francesco Casisa, Marcello Mazzarella, Mario Pupella; directed by Marco Amenta. (2009) — Duncan Shepherd
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