WINNER (x4) - 2024 VENICE INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL - incl. Lizzani & Pasinetti Award
Fuelled by magnetic performances from Elio Germano and the great Toni Servillo, Fabio Grassadoni and Antonio Piazza’s sly new black comedy was inspired by the search for real-life Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro.
Early 2000s, “Somewhere in Sicily”. Matteo (Germano), a fugitive mafiaoso in hiding, begins a curious correspondence with a former acquaintance of his father’s, his godfather Catello Palumbo (Toni Servillo), a corrupt politician fresh off a prison sentence. Their letters find the two men quickly re-forming their friendship, but this bond is complicated by the fact that Catello is not-so-secretly helping the police to locate and capture Matteo, plus Catello has his own agenda, one that involves significant risk: it’s a game of cat and mouse with one of the most wanted criminals in the world.
Elegantly captured by Paolo Sorrentino’s regular DP Luca Bigazzi, and featuring an award-winning original score by Colapesce, SICILIAN LETTERS finds Piazza and Grassadonia (Sicilian Ghost Story, Salvo) once again revitalising our sense of the Italian crime film.