Another TV series about the mob? Some in Naples say, ‘Basta.'

Boston Globe

2 days ago

Perhaps no modern pop culture reference has clung more stubbornly to Naples, Italy's third-largest city, than 'Gomorrah,' the title of Roberto Saviano's 2006 nonfiction bestseller about the Neapolitan mafia. A critically acclaimed movie followed in 2008, and the TV series premiered in 2014 and ran for five seasons. Two more movies debuted in 2019: 'The Immortal,' a spinoff, and 'Piranhas,' based on a Saviano novel about crime bosses as young as 15. And now there's 'Origins.'
Advertisement
So excuse some Neapolitans if they say they've had enough.
'They filmed the first one; they filmed the second one,' said Gennaro Di Virgilio, a fourth-generation owner of an artisanal Nativity shop. 'Basta.'
Once too dangerous and corrupt to attract many foreigners, Naples has been in the thrall of a tourism boom for years. Social media has lured visitors to the city's history, food, and sunshine, helping Naples shake off some of its seedy reputation, though youth unemployment and crime remain stubbornly high.
But the city keeps getting typecast, some Neapolitans say, as Gomorrah, reducing its residents to those engaged in the 'malavita,' the lawless life.
'Why must only bad things be said about us?' lamented Delia D'Alessandro, whose family handcrafts cornicelli, or red, horn-shaped amulets believed to offer protection from evil. 'I am in love with my city. Every time I take a waterfront stroll at sunset, I get emotional.'
Advertisement
'Gomorrah' may not sell romance. But it has hardly dimmed Naples' allure, while introducing many non-Italians to the city.
The creators of the series, who dismissed their critics as the grumbling of a few, expressed gratitude to Naples and its residents. After filming for 'Origins' wrapped last month, director Marco D'Amore, thanked Naples -- 'this unique and rare city-world' -- on Instagram.
While the original series was airing, some residents dressed up as the protagonists for Carnevale. At least one shop on the famed Via San Gregorio Armeno, known for its Nativity figurines, sells statuettes of some of the main characters: Ciro Di Marzio (aka 'the immortal') and Gennaro 'Genny' Savastano, the young mob don, complete with his signature chain necklace. (They were recently joined by a new figurine of Pope Leo XIV.)
Riccardo Tozzi, lead producer of 'Gomorrah: Origins,' defended the show, which he points out has long drawn from Naples' vibrant theater scene to cast local actors and hire local crews. The objections of detractors have carried little weight with the wider public, he added: 'Nobody thinks, 'Oh, God, I'm not going to Naples because there is the Camorra.''
He called opposition to the show a misguided attempt at artistic censorship 'that didn't exist even during the Fascist era.' And he argued that an unflinching narrative, even if perceived as 'negative,' appeals to audiences.
'The postcard of the beautiful and the good is boring,' he said.
Advertisement
The mob's real-world influence in Naples is diminished, but not gone. The Camorra has evolved, experts say, still trafficking drugs and laundering money but no longer controlling large swaths of territory.
The cramped Spanish Quarter used to be infamous for its pickpockets and muggers; today, it is a tourist destination better known for its pizza joints and a giant mural of Argentine soccer star Diego Maradona, who once played for Napoli and is revered.
But even with a smaller mob footprint, Naples and its suburbs suffer from entrenched problems that visitors to touristy parts of the city may not see, including high rates of school absenteeism, youth violence, and unemployment. Those social ills, among the worst in Italy, are especially pronounced in neighborhoods such as Scampia, outside Naples, home to a violent Camorra turf war two decades ago that was recounted in the 'Gomorrah' book.
Gennaro De Crescenzo, a teacher at the local Melissa Bassi High School, acknowledged Scampia's ongoing troubles. But most big cities face social challenges, he added, and it is unfair for his students to be 'indelibly branded' by their infamous neighborhood, though 'Gomorrah' has not filmed there in years.
He said some of his students who go abroad to work find that they cannot escape the taint of the old neighborhood. 'You're from Scampia?' people ask. 'Oh, 'Gomorrah!''
'It's a cliche,' said Domenico Mazzella di Bosco, the school principal. 'It's easy to stick, but then, let's face it, it's difficult to remove.'
De Crescenzo said he and others are mulling calling for a boycott of 'Origins' once it premieres. (Its Italian release is slated for early 2026.)
Much of the 'Gomorrah' film and early parts of the series were filmed in a vast public housing project of white, triangular buildings in Scampia named 'Le Vele,' or the sails. Today, two of the three remaining Vele stand empty, walled off and graffitied, their demolition slowly underway. Officials evacuated the third Vela after a walkway collapsed last summer, killing three people.
Advertisement
'Gomorrah: Stop nourishing yourselves with our lives,' read spray paint in Italian on one of the walls.
Back in the Spanish Quarter, Ciro Novelli had taped an anti-'Gomorrah' sign on the door of his small grocery store that proclaimed: 'You are warned, media usurers of a reality that dishonors our civilization.'
The problem with the latest Camorra-inspired fiction, Novelli said, is that it does not always show how those in the 'malavita' often end up in jail or dead.
A customer, Giuseppe Di Grazia, recalled that when he was young, mob bosses were feared by many young men. Now, he added, a teenager 'wants to imitate him. He wants to surpass him. He wants to become him.'
Maurizio Gemma, director of the Film Commission of the Campania Region, said he can sympathize with those sentiments about crime shows, especially in places dealing with violence.
But, Gemma said, the answer is not to 'condemn the story.'
'An evolved society must be able to manage its contradictions and must also be able to talk about its contradictions,' he said, 'in the hope that these contradictions will be overcome and that these problems will be solved.'
This article originally appeared in