Carmine Paternoster

An inside look at Italy's modern-day crime families, the Camorra in Naples and Caserta. Based on a book by Roberto Saviano. Power, money and blood: these are the "values" that the residents of the Province of Naples and Caserta have to face every day. They hardly ever have a choice and are forced to obey the rules of the Camorra. Only a lucky few can even think of leading a normal life.

Falchi is a melodrama set in the city of Naples, in its pulsating multi ethnic veins. The movie tells the story of two agents of the Special Squad of Naples, a police unit that investigates organized crime. Though impeccable at their work, the two cops hide strong weaknesses, shady secrets, loneliness, and overwhelming passions in their private lives.

Weaving together fact and fiction, this docudrama performs a portrait of the often seamy underside of the city of Naples.Ferrara traveled to Italy to interview the inmates at the Naples Pozzuoli State Prison, a high security lockup for women, and with the help of a translator he allows a number of women doing time to talk about their lives before and after they were convicted. Ferrara chose to expand the short profile of the prisoners into a feature by offering a look at life in the slums of Naples and the actions of a number of law enforcement officers and social workers struggling to improve conditions for the poor, as well as adding three short fictional segments shot of digital video gear.

Naples. Present day. Giovanna, a combative 60-year-old social worker on the frontline of the daily war against pervasive criminality, is confronted, like a modern Antigone, with a moral dilemma that threatens to destroy her work and her life. Giovanna runs an after-school centre that takes care of underprivileged children; a grassroots alternative to the mafia dominance of the city. But one day, young Maria, wife of a ruthless Camorra criminal on the run, and her two children take refuge at the centre, and ask Giovanna for protection.

A boy and a girl are locked in an enormous abandoned building in a rundown area. She is a prisoner and the local clan leader has forced him to be her warder. Despite their youth, both of them have grown up too fast. Veronica acts like a mature and open-minded woman whilst Salvatore is like a man who wants to hold on to his job and lead a quiet life. Thus, when faced with the violence of this incarceration, the two young people have different reactions: Veronica is restless and rebellious; Salvatore is more remissive and accommodating, either out of fear or realism. They are both victims but it is almost as though each blames the other for their reclusion. However, as the hours go by, their mutual hostility is transformed into an inevitable intimacy, consisting of reciprocal discoveries and confessions. Between the walls of that isolated and frightening place, Veronica and Salvatore fi nd a way to rekindle those adolescent dreams and ideas put aside too soon.

Carmine, a sewer worker for the city of Naples, finds himself working in the vault of the Bank of Naples one morning, and he gets the idea to pull off a robbery using the sewer system. To pull off the heist, he enlists the help of Gaetano, a former robber with several years in prison; the depressed Peppe "'o' Sciomen," a legend of the Spanish Quarter and also a former prisoner for robbery; the boxer Ruocco, a former professional who ended up fighting in clandestine matches; and Striano, a photographer and robber. After completing the robbery, however, Gaetano disappears without a trace with the million-dollar loot, leaving his accomplices locked in their lair, hoping to see him reappear. As time passes, strong tensions build between the four, bringing out old misunderstandings and fracturing alliances, until a new threat looms on the horizon: the powerful boss Jannone demands a share of the loot they don't yet have.

Based on Robert Saviano's bestselling book, this gritty Italian crime drama paints a portrait of the brutal Neapolitan crime organisation the Camorra, as seen through the eyes of Ciro Di Marzo, the obedient and self- confident right-hand man of the clan's godfather, Pietro Savastano.