Special Screening: Black Souls (2014)

On April 22, 2015, I attended the SCA Outside the Box special screening of Black Souls (Anime Nere). This Italian mafia film was produced at 2014 but it started its US screening last Friday, so I got to have a premiere experience with this film. Based on real events described in Gioacchino Criaco’s novel, Black Souls is a tale of violence begetting violence and complex morality inherited by each generation in Southern Italy, a real-life mafia seat. The Carbone family consists of three brothers, Luigi and Rocco who are engaged in the family business of international drug trade and Luciano who has remained in the ancestral town near Milan in the mountains herding goats. His 20-year old son Leo has little respect for his farmer father, but idealizes his Mafioso uncles. When Leo shoots up a bar owned by a rival family with a longstanding blood feud with the Carbones, his reckless actions create trouble that brings the whole family back to this small village for the inevitable bloody showdown. Luigi ends up getting shot, causing Leo to recklessly plan on revenge, which only brings him death. Luciano, losing his mind at his son’s death, ends up shooting Rocco and other key figures in the family. The movie ends with Luigi slowly pointing the gun towards himself.

Being a fan of The Godfather, I felt that this was one of “authentic” mafia films, which is not easy to find. There were no fluff or flashy actions, but it was still intense in its plot progression. The inner division within Italy between the two mobs that lasted for generations was triggered by one reckless action of a 20-year-old boy, and even brought up ideological division within the Carbones family. Luciano has failed to embrace his son because of Leo’s difference in the way he views the family business. As it was shown in a lot of films and television shows discussed our class, most disputes come from having these ideological divide and not being able to embrace these differences. Nebulous things such as “loyalty” and “dignity” is just a thin scab covering up old wounds of deep animosity, and used as the excuse for many wrong things that they engage in, such as murder. While Luciano has been staying out of this violence, when violence affects him personally, he is also corrupted. Violence acts as a poison, spreading and corrupting everything. Although the film was quite complex and ended on a depressing note, I was glad to find a legit, thought provoking mafia film.