Black Souls, film review: Munzi takes a sombre and ritualistic approach

(15)​ Francesco Munzi, 109 mins. Starring: Marco Leonardi, Peppino Mazzotta, Fabrizio Ferracane, Barbora Bobulova

Black Souls plays like a dark family melodrama as much as it does a typical gangster pic

Shot in Calabria, the most "Mafia-infested" part of Italy, Black Souls is yet another story about a family embroiled in organised crime. Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane) is a farmer who no longer wants to have anything to do with the Mafia but, yes, in best Corleone fashion, he keeps on being pulled back in.

The hitch is that his brothers are still involved and his own headstrong son, Leo, is drawn to the criminal lifestyle. The son's behaviour puts the entire family at risk.

Munzi takes a sombre and ritualistic approach to his subject matter. Black Souls plays like a dark family melodrama as much as it does a typical gangster pic.

Much of the drama unfolds deep in the very rugged Calabrian countryside, a long away from the cities where drugs are trafficked.

The pacing is very deliberate. There are scenes of fraught family meals and shots of gnarled old mafiosi scowling at one another or making very loaded remarks. The violence, when it comes, is brutal but matter of fact. The principle of omertà still holds. Family members call on the police to arrest the killers but then refuse to give them any information about who these killers are. Blood will have blood. Inevitably, the characters are soon caught in a cycle of revenge.

The plot may seem familiar from dozens of other Mafia movies but what is original here is the film's mournful tone and its absolute refusal to glamorise violence in any way.