La siciliana ribelle

Rita Mancuso's father is beloved Don Michele in Balata, Sicily. He orders the death of Bellafiore who murdered innocent peasants. A prosecutor arrives to confront him but the villagers support the Don rather than the corrupt incompetent police. Six years later, Rita is 17 and the village is awash with drugs. Her brother Carmelo gets killed and Rita brings in her evidence to the prosecutor who actually got her father's respect. She testifies against the Sicilian mob as revenge for her family's murders.

The story is somewhat muddled. Veronica D'Agostino is good as the fierce heroine. She isn't a pretty little thing but she has a nice vulnerability. Gérard Jugnot is also good. The material is there but the intensity is dispersed. The tension comes and goes. This should be a great character study of the Girl but the final ending should not be as confused.

As I have always said, and as I always will, WHO, better the Italians, cook pasta OR speak about mafia, true, genuine mafia, from the small villages in Sicily, Sardinia, or even big cities such as Naples or Rome? Like Russians talking about Gulag or Tchernobyl disaster; who better than them? No one. So, back to this Italian film, I don't compare it with those polizzotescos - pure Italian crime flicks that spread in the seventies - where mafia was mostly - not always though - shown thru endless gunfights with machine guns and car chases, movies destined to saturday evening red necks - or not - audiences. No, this one belongs to another category, the movies describing the mafia thru the eyes of the common people and the police force who fought against the "octopuss". Those movies were mostly directed by the likes of Francesco Rosi, Damiano Damiani, Pasquale Squieteri, very gloomy and downbeat stories. Because so close to real facts, real history. This one makes no exception, it is very well done in every way; yes, Italians are real professionals when they speak of mafia. More than they make westerns....

Someone tells you one word: "Sicily". Quick, quick, what do you think? you think of Godfather scenes, of rolling rural landscapes, societies scarred by vendettas and inter-family violence, closeups of old rugged facial lineaments, scenes of emigration on rural lifestyle.

Now, the true Sicily is much different, with modern office buildings, people holding cell phones and having business meetings, and a much more urban society.

For a motion picture financed and produced just a few years ago, and supposedly on a modern story, this production was a disappointment. Totally stereotypical. I mean, Antonioni's "L'Avventura" from forty years earlier looks much more modern.

Obviously, the producers wanted to create a cash cow and sell it to the American audience, still nostalgic of the GF series. Smart movie-goers can easily see through the facade, and not like this production. The producers think that the audience is stupid enough to see their stereotypical work.

If you want to see a motion picture that portrays modern Italy with its crime-ridden background, see Gomorrah.

Only because more people will have seen "Veronica Guerin," I cite that splendid film as an introduction to "The Sicilian Girl." The themes are similar -- true stories of young women who invite death by exposing murderous activities. In this case, Rita Atrria (Veronica D'Agostino), a 17 year old from a Sicilian village controlled by the Mafia, takes her story, documented by diaries she has been keeping for many years, to an anti-Mafia prosecutor, Paolo Borsellino (Gerard Jugnot) seeking vengeance for the murder of her father and brother, both of whom were themselves members of the Mafia. Rita's diaries confirm incidents which the police have tracked and lead to the arrest of her town's Mafia chieftains, including the ones who had her father and brother killed. To avoid spoiling the story, I will offer no more of the details except to say that Rita's revelations make both her and Borsellino targets for assassination. Ms. D'Agostino and Mr. Jugnot are excellent actors, and a number of other roles are very well done. The movie is exciting and well worth the two hours it takes to watch it. As with any of the movies based on a "true" story, one is left wondering where truth leaves off and fiction takes over. I can guess at the juncture, but for the most part "The Sicilian Girl" is very convincing.

One of the reviewers (from Minneapolis) said "bad choice of casting the leading actress prone to overacting." Nope. Growing in a NY Neapolitan/Sicilian neighborhood, I didn't see her overacting. That's just the way my BFFs were. Dramatic. Passionate. Over the top. I found her performance an honest portrayal. (And laughed at the scene where the cop buys her colorful clothes, b/c everyone in NY, Sicilian or not...wears black.) PS: My family visited Sicily the year this trial took place. I remember the guards w/Uzis both out side the Palace of Justice and in the airport.

And I'd give this movie an 8.5.