In a place where blood ties and vendetta still hold sway, this tale of a Calabrian criminal family unfolds. The story starts in Holland and takes us to Milan, before finally arriving in Calabria among the peaks of Aspromonte where it all began, and where it will all end.
ANIME NERE is the story of three brothers – the sons of shepherds with ties to the 'ndrangheta – and their divided souls. Luigi, the youngest, is an international drug dealer. Rocco, Milanese by adoption, is to all appearances a middle-class businessman, thanks to his cousin's ill-gotten gains. Luciano, the eldest, harbours a pathological fantasy of pre-industrial Calabria and engages in lonely, melancholy dialogue with the dead. His twenty-year-old son Leo belongs to the lost generation, who have no identity. The only thing Leo has inherited from his ancestors is resentment and for him, the future is a train that has already left the station. After a trivial argument, he carries out an act of intimidation against a bar protected by a rival clan. Anywhere else, it would have been dismissed as nothing more than youthful foolishness. But not in Calabria, and especially not in Aspromonte. Instead, it is the spark that lights the fire. For Luciano, it is a return to the drama many years after the murder of his father. In a dimension suspended between the distant past and modern life, the characters are driven towards the archetypes of tragedy.

Direction: Francesco Munzi

Script: Francesco Munzi, Maurizio Braucci

Production: Luigi Musini, Luigi Musini, Olivia Musini, Olivia Musini

Cinematography: Vladan Radovic

Editing: Cristiano Travaglioli

Production Design: Luca Servino

Costume Design: Marina Roberti

Sound: Stefano Campus

Original Score: Giuliano Taviani

Cast: Marco Leonardi, Peppino Mazzotta, Fabrizio Ferracane

Original Title: ANIME NERE

Original Languages: English, Italian

Subtitles: English

Film Production Countries: Italy, France

Statement of the Director/s
I made this film in a town that legal professionals and journalists stigmatise as one of the most mafia-ridden places in Italy, one of the nerve centres of the Calabrian 'ndrangheta:
Africo. Africo, in the province of Reggio Calabria, on the Ionic coast: the sea is beautiful there, unknown to tourists, and behind it rise up some of the most beautiful, untamed mountainsin Italy – the Aspromonte. In between, the landscape is marked by the anarchic building developments so indicative of the south of Italy, and of the mistreatment of Italy.
When I said I wanted to make the film there, everyone tried to discourage me: it's too difficult, it's inaccessible, it's too dangerous.
It was an impossible film. I sought help from Gioacchino Criaco, author of "Anime Nere", the book on which the film is loosely based. I arrived in Calabria full of prejudice and fear. I discovered a very complex and diverse reality. I saw mistrust turn into curiosity, and people opened their doors to us.
I mixed my actors with the residents of Africo, who acted and worked with the cast. Without them, this film would have been poorer. Africo has a very tough history of criminality but it can help us understand many things about our country. From Africo, we have a better view of Italy.

Biography of the Director/s
Francesco Munzi was born in Rome in 1969. He graduated in Political Science and in 1998, he obtained a diploma in directing from the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia. In 2004, he released his first feature film, SAIMIR. The film participated in the 61st Venice FF, where it received a special mention in the debut feature film category. The film was then presented at film festivals all over the world to great critical acclaim, winning awards including the Nastro d'Argento for Best New Director. Munzi's second feature film, IL RESTO DELLA NOTTE (2008), was presented at the Directors' Fortnight in Cannes. It was then taken to numerous other international festivals.

Filmography:
2004 SAIMIR
2008 IL RESTO DELLA NOTTE

Awards Won
9 David di Donatello Awards: Best Film, Director, Screenwriter, Producer, DOP, Sound Design, Editor, Composer, Song
Bastia Italian FF: In competition – Grand Prix du Jury

World Sales:
Rai Com
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