Piranhas – Forbidden Games

Naples today, seen from the inside. The media is changing and moving away from « godfathers » in the Hollywood way. Roberto Saviano, the writer and journalist the most protected of the world, is the author of the book Piranha (2016) which inspires this movie. It shows the evolution of delinquency since Gomorra and participated in the writing of the script.

Here, the old generation of neapolitan mafiosos on the run or in prison, children take over without waiting their turn. The mobsters don’t eat spaghetti anymore but hang out at fast food, chase scooters, and sweatpants replaces suits. It’s the fast learning of theft, of pizzo (tax to merchants), of weapons and blood while returning to sleep at mom’s. Managing millions at the age of 15… the dream of a prince life, intense and short. The total absence of paternal figures, cops and the old world, let Naples burn in the hands of these violent teenagers. Pirhanas is the crossing of Romanzo Criminale (Michele Placido) and Kids (Larry Clark).

The cast is 100% local, sings in Neapolitan and Claudio Govannesi, the director, skillfully mixes fragile moments of intimacy with the horrible picture. Used to tell adolescence as in Fiore (2017), he is also the author of few episodes of Gomorra. From which he takes up the raw and dry montage, erasing the impression of « déjà-vu », to highlight the unreleased side of this episode of the evolution of a drifting Camorra that rejuvenates to better die.