In the Mafia's firing line

La Scorta (The Bodyguards)

Directed by Ricky Tognazzi

Mandolin Cinema, Sydney, from April 14

Reviewed by Paul Walker

The crisis of the Italian state, which culminated in changing the electoral system and the victory of the far right in the March 27 elections, was detonated by revelations about political connections with the Mafia.

Half the deputies in the old parliament are under investigation for corruption. This is not just a matter of individual morality: it signals a political system in which the Mafia permeated every level of the state, including the police and judiciary.

The post-1945 state was based on a trinity of institutions — the Catholic Church, the Christian Democratic Party and the Mafia — united in corruption and clientalism to keep the Communists out of power.

A key event in the collapse of this system was the assassination of leading anti-Mafia judge Giovanni Falcone in Palermo in May 1992. The mass outpouring of anger and grief detonated an unstoppable offensive against corruption.

But the anti-Mafia struggle wasn't just those dramatic events; it was also a long, painful fight by a minority of judges and police who took their job seriously. La Scorta is based on the true story of Judge Tuarisano, who blew the whistle on Mafia infiltration of the legal system in Trapani, Sicily. Hemmed in by Mafia stooges all around, he turns for support to La Scorta — his bodyguards from the Caribinieri, the national paramilitary police.

La Scorta succeeds in what it aims to do — to show the human dynamics and sacrifices in the anti-Mafia battle at a "micro" level. Despite its ultimately intensely political background, this is no attempt at a political thriller on the scale of Rossi's Illustrious Corpses. It is not the big picture involving government, church and Mafia leaders, but a mundane battle, in an unimportant little town in Sicily.

The movie is good drama, with lots of sustained tension. But don't go expecting to have the central issues in the fight against the Mafia explained or even raised. The film's limited ambitions inevitably lead to limited results.

Despite this, Tognazzi had a lot of difficulty in getting the film financed and shown. Movies dealing seriously with the Mafia are still hot potatoes in Italy. Anyone who thinks the Mafia has gone away for good is in for a rude awakening.

From GLW issue 138