Bleakest Depiction Yet Of Brutal Naples Group
ROME — Roberto Saviano’s “Gomorrah,” his best-selling 2007 book of reportage on the Neapolitan crime syndicate the Camorra, was dark. Matteo Garrone’s 2009 film adaptation was darker. But the hit television series of the same name that premiered in Italy in 2014 is by far the darkest.
The screen rights to the show have been sold to 150 countries. Its depiction of a brutal underworld has broken new ground in Italy. It has also prompted a debate about whether it paints too sympathetic a picture of the criminals and too grim a picture of Naples and Italy.
“There were two polemics about the series,” said Aldo Grasso, the television critic for Corriere della Sera, Italy’s leading daily. “The first is that it presents a bad image
‘Gomorrah’ TV show tries to upend the clichés of a genre.
of Italy. The second is that it could be seen as a ‘ bad teacher’ and that by watching the series a lot of young people might go to the other side.”
The show follows the fictional Savastano clan after the arrest of its boss, Don Pietro, played with understated rage by Fortunato Cerlino. He hands the reins to a trusted deputy, Ciro Di Marzio (Marco D’Amore). But it is his wife, Donna Imma (Maria Pia Calzone), who also takes on a leading role.
Stefano Sollima, the showrunner, said his strategy was to subvert the audience’s expectations about the Mafia genre. “What I always tried to do was to start from the exact opposite of the cliché,” said Mr. Sollima. “We created a family that’s totally dysfunctional but also extremely ruthless. You have a boss, and he isn’t the stereotype of the classic boss.”
Sky Italia, the show’s producer, took a risk on “Gomorrah,” which is far more violent that than most of mainstream Italian television. People are shot point blank, and a boss forces an underling to drink his own urine as a loyalty test. The production cast largely unknown Neapolitan theater actors, and because the show was filmed in Neapolitan dialect, it has been shown with subtitles even in Italy.
“When we pitched this show, I could count on the fingers of one hand the people who said it was a great idea,” said Andrea Scrosati, the executive vice president for programming at Sky Italia. “Ninety percent of people said: ‘ This is crazy. This is something in Neapolitan about a book that came out 10 years ago that they already did a movie about.’ ”
“Gomorrah” has become the most-watched show in the history of Sky Italia, which is the country’s largest pay television broadcaster. “Gomorrah” has six times as many viewers in Italy as “Game of Thrones,” with an average of 2.2 million during its second season, in 2016.
Much of “Gomorrah” was filmed in Scampia, in a housing project named “Le Vele,” or “The Sails,” for its white, triangular shape. The buildings have become emblematic of the area’s degradation and thriving drug trade.
Authorities have paid close attention. Luigi de Magistris, the mayor of Naples since 2011 and a former anti-Mafia prosecutor, said the show presented an out- of- date reality. On his watch, he said, the city is working to tear down part of Le Vele and relocate inhabitants to new housing developments.
“For decades in Naples, there were ties between politicians and the Camorra,” he said. “This office is at war against the Camorra, and this is an absolute novelty for Naples.”
Gaetano di Vaio, a filmmaker and actor who served prison time for armed robbery and drug dealing before turning his life around and who worked with the television production, said the reality that inspired the show was even harsher. “I collaborated with the writers and director, and at a certain point, we had to dial it back; there were things that were too violent and too ugly,” he said.
“The problem in Naples is the Camorra,” Mr. Di Vaio said. “Not ‘Gomorrah.’ ”