Gomorrah

Matteo Garrone's unnervingly authentic Naples crime drama won the Grand Prix at Cannes before inspiring a hit TV series.

Matteo Garrone's searing and unnervingly authentic crime drama pulls no punches in its examination of organised crime in Naples, detailing its reaches into every aspect of daily life. Masterfully adapting from Roberto Saviano's controversial non-fiction book, Garrone’s gaze covers an ensemble of characters including a dodgy entrepreneur running a toxic-racket (played by Toni Servillo of The Great Beauty), a pair of wannabe gangsters taken to re-enacting scenes from Scarface, and a 13-year-old delivery boy just starting out on the path to crime.

Gomorrah’s success at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival (where it was the Jury Prize and was nominated for the Palme d’Or) launched director Garrone onto the international stage (Reality, Tales of Tales), and led to the acclaimed spin-off TV series of the same name, often referred to as Italy’s The Wire.