Directed by and starring TV personality Pierfrancesco Diliberto (Pif), the mix of comedy, childhood reminiscence and documentary reconstruction of Mafia killings in Palermo during the 1970s seems like an unusual mix, but The Mafia Kills Only In Summer would go on to win several film awards and be developed subsequently into a TV series.
There are two halves to the film, the first half dealing with the early childhood of Arturo (Alex Bisconti), his love for a new girl Flora, and his growing awareness as a child of the influence that the Mafia have over the everyday lives of the citizens of Palermo in Sicily. The second half, stars the director Pif as Arturo, now a grown man aspiring to be a journalist, still dreaming of his true love Flora as she reappears in his life, and with the events that would eventually lead to the decline of the Mafia's stranglehold over the city.
Both parts of the film have their own attractions. The first half has some moments of childhood whimsy and comic overplaying, a bit like the cinema fixation of Cinema Paradiso, only for Arturo the fascination is an unusually strange devotion to the Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. The second half mixes romantic comedy with Arturo and Flora's involvement in politics and journalism, which presents some unlikely contrasts alongside the increase in violence and assassination by mafiosi under pressure from the authorities.
In the end it's those connections to what is happening in the real-world that succeed and validate the films approach. It not only gives a real sense of what it means to have grown up in Sicily during those times, the strangeness of the times contributing to a strange view of the world for a young child, but it also manages to pay tribute to those who fought against the Mafia and paid for it with their lives. The style might seem incongruous and exaggerated, but it seems a genuine response to the times and the people who lived through them, and - just as importantly - it has an easy approach that ensures that its message is able to reach out to a wide mainstream audience.
There are two halves to the film, the first half dealing with the early childhood of Arturo (Alex Bisconti), his love for a new girl Flora, and his growing awareness as a child of the influence that the Mafia have over the everyday lives of the citizens of Palermo in Sicily. The second half, stars the director Pif as Arturo, now a grown man aspiring to be a journalist, still dreaming of his true love Flora as she reappears in his life, and with the events that would eventually lead to the decline of the Mafia's stranglehold over the city.
Both parts of the film have their own attractions. The first half has some moments of childhood whimsy and comic overplaying, a bit like the cinema fixation of Cinema Paradiso, only for Arturo the fascination is an unusually strange devotion to the Italian Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti. The second half mixes romantic comedy with Arturo and Flora's involvement in politics and journalism, which presents some unlikely contrasts alongside the increase in violence and assassination by mafiosi under pressure from the authorities.
In the end it's those connections to what is happening in the real-world that succeed and validate the films approach. It not only gives a real sense of what it means to have grown up in Sicily during those times, the strangeness of the times contributing to a strange view of the world for a young child, but it also manages to pay tribute to those who fought against the Mafia and paid for it with their lives. The style might seem incongruous and exaggerated, but it seems a genuine response to the times and the people who lived through them, and - just as importantly - it has an easy approach that ensures that its message is able to reach out to a wide mainstream audience.