Latest news with #Gomorrah
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Another TV series about the mob? Some in Naples say, ‘Basta.'
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
New York Times
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Another ‘Gomorrah' TV Series About the Mob? Some in Naples Say ‘Basta.'
A banner fluttered in March over a narrow alley in Naples crammed with tourist shops selling Nativity figurines. Naples, it proclaimed, 'doesn't support you anymore.' The 'you' is the wildly successful Italian television crime drama 'Gomorrah,' which days earlier had begun filming a prequel — 'Gomorrah: Origins' — in the city's gritty Spanish Quarter, tracing the 1970s roots of the show's leading Camorra crime syndicate clan. 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 best seller 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.' 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, the 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. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Local Italy
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Local Italy
Italy's press freedom ranking drops again amid ‘growing political interference'
The annual World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranks 180 countries based on journalists' ability to work and report independently. Italy ranked 49th in the 2025 edition – down by three places compared to 2024 and behind all other Western European countries. Only six EU member states (Romania, Croatia, Malta, Hungary, Bulgaria and Greece) scored lower than Italy. Norway, Estonia and the Netherlands topped the table for press freedom, with Britain and the US ranking 20th and 57th respectively. 'Press freedom in Italy continues to be threatened by mafia organisations, particularly in the south of the country,' RSF said. 'Journalists who investigate organised crime and corruption are systematically threatened and sometimes subjected to physical violence,' the NGO added. Around 20 Italian reporters, including Gomorrah author Roberto Saviano, currently live under permanent police protection after they were targeted with threats or attacks. Besides intimidation from mafia groups, journalists in Italy also 'condemn growing political interference', warning of 'attempts by politicians to obstruct their freedom to cover judicial cases,' RSF said. The report specifically pointed to a 'gag law' prohibiting the disclosure of provisional detention orders until the end of the related preliminary court hearings. This effectively blocks reporting on the early stages of criminal investigations. The law, which came into force in March 2024 following a proposal from PM Giorgia Meloni's ruling coalition, has sparked harsh criticism from Italian journalists and academics. Alessandra Costante, the head of national press union FNSI, has called it 'a freedom-killing measure' that undermines press freedom, as well as 'individual liberties". RSF also noted that many reporters in Italy 'give in to self-censorship, either to conform to their news organisation's editorial line, or to avoid a defamation suit'. Defamation through the media (including social media platforms) continues to be a criminal offence in Italy, with convictions carrying prison sentences of up to three years. Threats of a defamation lawsuit are often used by powerful public figures as a way to prevent journalists from publishing critical or unfavourable stories. Italy's drop in the ranking came at 'an unprecedented, critical low' in press freedom across the globe, according to RSF. The decline, RSF noted, is driven by growing economic pressure, as 'today's news media are caught between preserving their editorial independence and ensuring their economic survival'.
Local Italy
01-04-2025
- Local Italy
Scottish tourist dies after Rome holiday home explosion
Grant Paterson, 54, from East Kilbride, South Lanarkshire, was on a break in Rome when his holiday home in Rome's Monteverde district collapsed after an explosion on Sunday, March 23rd. Following the blast, the man was said to have suffered major leg injuries and burns covering 75 percent of his body. Paterson died in hospital on Tuesday morning, Il Corriere di Roma reported. A spokesperson for the UK Foreign Office said that they were 'supporting the family of a British man who died in Italy' and were in touch with local authorities, according to British news reports. Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri said in a statement that the news of Paterson's death "saddens all of Rome". 'I want to express my personal condolences and those of the entire city to his loved ones and fellow citizens. I sincerely hope that the ongoing investigation will swiftly shed light on this terrible accident," he added. The Rome Public Prosecutor's Office launched an official investigation into the explosion last week. The probe, which is led by Deputy Prosecutor Giovanni Conzo, is linked to potential charges of involuntary personal injury (lesioni colpose) and involuntary disaster (disastro colposo), Italian media reports said. The explosion, which occurred at around 9am on March 23rd, 'felt like a bomb', according to reports from local residents. The blast damaged part of the walls of Villa Pamphili – a 17th-century villa boasting the largest landscaped public park in Rome – as well as several cars parked in front of the building. Following the explosion, Italian writer and journalist Roberto Saviano, famous for his international mafia bestseller Gomorrah, said on social media he used to live in the building.
New York Times
31-03-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Billy Gilmour on Conte's Napoli, nights out with McTominay and paying tribute to Maradona
A few days before Christmas, the tight, winding streets of the Quartieri Spagnoli were packed. They always are these days. Naples is in the grip of a tourism boom, with millions of visitors drawn here by Elena Ferrante, by Gomorrah, by Mare Fuori, all of them determined to stroll the streets of the city's perfectly Instagrammable ancient heart. Advertisement Their destination is always the same. At times, particularly in the evening, the crowds waiting for a glimpse of the towering mural of Diego Maradona on Via Emanuele de Deo can be so dense that the whole place grinds to a halt, a snaking human traffic jam spilling out from the cramped square itself onto the alleys that surround it. Standing patiently in line is not, of course, an option for Napoli's current players. Should they wish to pay obeisance to the club's greatest icon, the city's patron saint — or even just indulge in a simple bit of tourism — then it is necessary to take special measures. The older hands at the club know that the trick is timing. 'You have to go at night,' said Matteo Politano, now in his fifth year at Napoli, a Roman by birth who qualifies as a Neapolitan by adoption. 'You have dinner, you wait for a little while, and then you go late. Really late, like two or three in the morning.' That particular piece of wisdom, though, had not been passed on to Billy Gilmour, Napoli's Scottish midfielder, when his family flew out to visit him a few months ago. He wanted to take them to see it, but he knew he had to go incognito. 'It was easier because it was winter,' he said. 'I had my hood up, sunglasses on, a big scarf. It was busy. Really busy. But it's amazing.' He managed to get to the piazza, to see how Naples honours its heroes, and to escape unnoticed, just another face in the crowd. That has not been Gilmour's only taste of Naples in the seven months since he arrived in Italy, cherry-picked and headhunted by Antonio Conte. Conventional wisdom has it that Naples is not a place where players can live a normal life; the city is too small, too familiar and, above all, too fervent. The club, generally, lets new arrivals know that there is a non-zero chance they will be mobbed if they appear in public. Gilmour, though, has found that judicious expeditions are possible. 'You can go out,' he said. 'You do get noticed, but it's a nice thing. People just want to congratulate you, to tell you to keep doing what you're doing.' Advertisement There are certain limitations. He and fellow Scotland international Scott McTominay joined Napoli at the same time — indeed, they consulted each other on their moves — and have since become almost inseparable. They live close to each other, just outside the city; they share the services of Mario, a private chef; they sit next to each other at mealtimes and in the dressing room. As far as Gilmour is concerned, though, McTominay, who arrived from Manchester United, is a bit of a liability when having an evening meal. 'If you go out with Scott, it's crazy,' he said. The problems are his height and his, well, distinctly northern European colouring. McTominay 'sticks out' a little more than Gilmour does. Still, they have seen enough to have a couple of favoured haunts. 'The culture, the lifestyle, the city are totally different,' Gilmour said. 'You experience things you wouldn't back in the UK. It is an eye-opener.' And yet it is immediately apparent that the 23-year-old could not feel more at home. There is something fitting about that. As a teenager, Gilmour's performances for the youth teams of Rangers and the Scottish national side were sufficient to attract the eye not just of the Premier League's big beasts, but Barcelona, too; one of the club's scouts privately admitted a degree of surprise that Scotland seemed to have a player cast straight from the Masia mould. From a young age, Gilmour developed a reputation on the continent for possessing virtues that were not, at least traditionally, British. 'When I was younger, my main aim was to play in the Premier League,' Gilmour said, sitting in the same classroom at Napoli's training facility where he and McTominay have their twice-weekly Italian lessons. 'That was my first dream. But I was always told that my style of play would suit playing abroad.' Advertisement When the chance arose again last summer, Gilmour said, it was 'a bit of a no-brainer'. He had struggled to establish himself at Chelsea, spending a season on loan at Norwich City — 'it showed me the other side of football, it put me on the right path' — before moving to Brighton & Hove Albion. 'Graham Potter and Roberto De Zerbi changed how I played, how I saw football,' he said. 'At Chelsea, I was always in and out, not finishing games. In my first season at Brighton, I was doing the same. But in that second one, because we were in Europe as well, I was playing lots of games, I was fit and confident. I was at my very best.' That form not only ensured that he played in all of Scotland's games at Euro 2024 but caught Conte's eye, too. Their paths had crossed previously, albeit briefly: the midfielder's first season in the club's youth system coincided with Conte's turbulent final year as manager of the senior team. Six years later, the player that Gilmour had become just so happened to fit the profile Conte required. He had made it plain to Napoli that he wanted to sign a midfielder with 'personality in playing the ball', as he would later put it, who might be able to provide cover and competition for Stanislav Lobotka. Gilmour, he felt, had 'very similar characteristics'. The player's enthusiasm for the idea made up Conte's mind. Scottish players are, of course, de rigueur in Serie A at the moment. Gilmour had canvassed Lewis Ferguson, the Bologna captain, when he first learned of Napoli's approach; he had consulted McTominay, too. 'I'm pretty close with Lewis,' he said. 'I followed him when he was at Bologna, and whenever I saw him with the national team, I'd ask him about Italy. I just wanted to hear it from a second source, really.' Gilmour has needed to be a little more patient than he might have liked to join the ever-growing list of Scottish regulars in Serie A. He began against Milan on Sunday and provided the assist for what proved to be Romelu Lukaku's winner for the hosts on the night. Yet he has largely served as an understudy to Lobotka, as Conte had intimated, making 18 appearances in Serie A, nine of them starts; he has already had to cede the nickname 'Braveheart' to McTominay. There is, though, no sense of frustration. 'I want to play as much as possible, obviously,' Gilmour said. 'But we have a great squad, with really good players. We have a manager who understands when players are hurt, or when they need resting. We train hard and we work hard. The senior players, (Giovanni) Di Lorenzo, Politano, Leonardo Spinazzola: they make sure the standards are high, all of the time. They don't let you drop. That is good for me.' When he has had the chance, he has invariably stood out. Conte wrapped him in a bear hug as he left the field after helping to orchestrate a win against Milan in October, then lavished him with praise after a 'great' performance in a 1-1 draw with Inter on March 1. That point may yet be crucial: it ensured that Napoli remain in contention for the Serie A title as the season enters its final rounds. Conte has already suggested that Gilmour may play a more prominent role in the next few weeks. He has had to wait for his opportunities, but nobody is in any doubt that they are coming. Advertisement Gilmour might have been able to blend in with the teeming masses in the Quartieri Spagnoli just before Christmas, but if he helps Napoli over the line for a second championship in three years, there is no chance at all of him ever being just another face in the crowd.
