SUBURRA | FILM REVIEW
Dir: Stefano Sollima (18, 130 mins)
A sprawling Italian mafia drama, first released in 2016 and subsequently spawning Netflix series Suburra: Blood On Rome, is well worth revisiting as it comes to Amazon Prime’s Icon Film Channel. A richly nuanced, dark epic that shows the disturbing underbelly of the Italian city, Suburra has everything: murder, corrupt politicians and marauding gypsies, all done in a gritty style.
A new ‘Las Vegas’ is hopefully about to happen in Ostia, a suburb of Rome, and everyone wants a piece of it, from the Vatican to various Mafia families. However, when dodgy politician Malgrai – played with reptilian charm and menace by Pierfrancesco Favino – allows his predilection for sex parties with underage girls and cocktails of drugs to get the better of him, a young girl winds up dead. This sets in motion a chain of events that leads to wince-inducing violence, doublecrossing, retribution and chaos.
Told across a week, events lead to an ‘apocalypse’, with Claudio Amendola as a feared Samurai and old fixer between families attempting to steady the centre. He finds himself bloodily challenged by young upstarts – including Alessandro Borghi’s Number 8 and psychotic gypsy overlord Macleti, played with chaotic nastiness by Adamo Dionisi. Shootouts are memorably staged, one in a supermarket and shopping mall notably highlighting the randomness and ruthlessness of the violence. Greta Scarano also shines as the addict girlfriend of Number 8, who may end up being more ruthless than her lover.
Rome is shown in a grittier, rain-soaked and less romantic lens, while director Sollima – who went on to direct Italian crime dramas like Gomorrah, Romanzo Criminale and more recently the blander Without Remorse, with Michael B. Jordan – keeps the narrative clear, taut and tension-fuelled. A Mafiosi drama worth revisting.
Streaming now via the Icon Film Channel on Prime Video UK
words KEIRON SELF