Suburra

So ein intensives Erlebnis habe ich letztes Jahr (vergeblich) von Black Mass und Legend erwartet. Die Italiener spielen einfach die Mafia-Karten auf einem anderen Level als die Briten oder die Amis. Ein kleines schlimmes Ereignis, das zu einer Apokalypse führt, welche alle verschlingt und vernichtet. Das Gefühl von Hilflosigkeit und der Unmöglichkeit, ins Verbrechernetz nicht gefangen zu werden, steigert sich hier zum wütenden Wahnsinn. Suburra ist ein Genre-Film, in Cannes würde man ihn nicht so feiern, wie damals Garrones Arthouse-Werk Gomorrha - Reise in das Reich der Camorra. Es ist aber ein verdammt spannender Genre-Film, welcher ausgezeichnet mit den Figuren arbeitet. Mit hervorragend dargestellten Figuren. Die Handlungswege sind uns an manchen Stellen vertraut, aber der Film wirkt nie ausgesprochen klischeehaft. Die Soundtrack-Nutzung von den größten M83-Hits ist bizarr, aber vielleicht deswegen noch wirkungsvoller. Sie haben über meinen fünften Stern entschieden. (07.03.2016)

A modern mafia thriller that maps the operation of organized crime vertically across the social structure of contemporary Italy. From political and church leaders and powerful bosses to prostitutes and small-time crooks doing dirty work in the field. The only thing missing here is the counterbalance of the police and state institutions facing the mafia. The story is set in a world so deeply rooted in corruption and dirty deals that the competition within the underworld poses a much greater, if not the only, risk. Well-written and directed, it is a complex experience that is rarely seen. I have only one reservation: big predators are usually rightfully at the top of the food chain, whereas in Suburra, the nobodies triumph – and at least in one case, against the logic of the situation's development and against the nature of their personality. However, Suburra is seriously close to a five-star rating. Overall impression: 85%. (13.03.2017)

A film blurring the boundaries between concepts such as power, corruption, the church, good intentions, the mafia, usurious gangs, politics, interests, small/large fish, money, etc. Sollima continues in a style he has already successfully used in the Gomorrah series, and so this Gordian knot of destinies from the far side of Rome on the other side of Rome leads confidently and in terms of style towards a complex criminal movie. In this respect it can't deny "gomorrah's roots "(whether book, serial or movie). Like the influence of the duo Tropa de Elite or The Wire. A well-thought-out script (perhaps only the indicated church line was unused and therefore pointless), the actors, the hypnotic camera and the Martinez’s soundtrack, all this is at the highest level. The fact that it is "only" a kind of pilot for the upcoming series. It is a crime series that is one of the best ever created in this genre in recent years. And in this genre department a lot of amazing staff have been done. (02.01.2016)

Every now and then, I watch something that leaves me speechless. I’m so bewitched – in a good way – that I’m completely smitten. I had this exact feeling after watching the contemporary gangster movie Suburra. The harsh fates of individual characters of different standings are connected by a monstrous construction of a future complex with a casino on the edge of Rome in such a precise way that I was dumbstruck. The directors have skillfully incorporated interesting characters into the vicious cycle of the mafia history and by doing so, they closed an important chapter of the contemporary Italian underground. Some of the scenes were more brutal, some of them less. But all of them were predominated by this disgusting loss of humanity that was always supported by a strange unearthly music of the French band M38 and it amplified the entire story, which felt as if it was happening on a different planet altogether. (08.08.2016)

It’s an audio-visually over-stylized, soft-spoken, yet more than eloquent fresco about the dark side of the eternal city that manages a quantum of characters, unprecedented violence, and metaphorical parables. Some of the threads could still use an extra knot at the end, but it is still an intense and exhausting viewing experience in the best sense. (15.01.2017)