Italian film Director Francesco Munzi takes on the topic of systematic and familiar violence in his latest film Black Souls; A story that shows that one small act of rebellion and criminal behavior can have far ranging consequences that go beyond it’s original act. The film is also quietly contemplative, as you know things are going to escalate, but he takes his time getting there. It’s akin to the much buzzed about award contender A Most Violent Year.
Set in Calabria, a small village in Southern Italy’s the film features some breathtaking shots of the Italian countryside and shore. Thanks to Cinematographer Vladan Radovic you can’t watch this movie without thinking “Damn, I have to go visit the Italian shore someday,” although you may have to think twice about that because this is one of the most violent areas in Italy.
The film opens with a minor confrontation between a brash young kid named Leo (Giuseppe Fumo) who feels like he was disrespected by someone in a rival family who is suspected being behind the killing of several of Leo’s older relatives. Desperate to prove himself: he and a friend fire a couple of rounds at one of the Ferraro’s bar shutters. This small act of defiance sparks a chain reaction that threatens to tear apart his family namely his uncles – big time drug dealers Rocco (Marco Leonardi), Luigi (Peppino Mazzotta), and their older brother Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane) who wants nothing to do with the family business, he just wants to raise his goats and be left alone.
Based on a novel by Gioacchino Criaco and a screenplay by Munzi and others the actors have solid material to work from and all do a nice job with their parts. I particularly liked how Leonardi’s brainy and always calculating Rocco played against the brasher, showier Mazzotta.
Munzi shows violence without being graphic. Everything is done just matter of fact or without the Hollywood gloss to it. It’s just there in the background, you sense it permeates beneath just beneath the surface in every interaction. Whether it’s the police, neighbors who close their windows when they know something is going to go down or the perpetrators.
The first ½ of this movie sucks you into this world, but it’s a very slow build to the inevitable explosion that’s destined to occur and when it does, it comes in a weird, twist that felt a bit out of the blue, but didn’t if you really think about it and that’s my biggest problem with the film – it’s ambiguous ending. I’ve made it plain in the past that I hate ambiguity in my movies. I want a clear ending.
While Munzi probably thinks he provides one, I can’t help but wonder the why of it all and is that the filmmaker’s intent; for the audience to ask the question why? I hate not being able to write a proper review because I don’t want to spoil the film, but darn it, I want to know why. I have several theories that would actually fit the ending, but I want someone to take the spoon full of jello and feed it to me.
Final Grade B