''Gomorrah'' ( it, Gomorra) is a 2008 Italian

crime film Crime films, in the broadest sense, is a film genre inspired by and analogous to the crime fiction literary genre. Films of this genre generally involve various aspects of crime and its detection. Stylistically, the genre may overlap and combine ...

directed by

Matteo Garrone Matteo Garrone (born 15 October 1968) is an Italians, Italian filmmaker. Born in Rome, the son of a theatre critic, Nico Garrone and a photographer, in 1996 Garrone won the ''Sacher d'Oro'', an award sponsored by Nanni Moretti, with the short fi ...

, based on the non-fiction book of the same name by

Roberto Saviano Roberto Saviano (; born 22 September 1979) is an Italian writer, essayist, journalist, and screenwriter. In his writings, including articles and his book '' Gomorrah'', he uses literature and investigative reporting to tell of the economic reali ...

, who also collaborated in the screenplay. It deals with the

Casalesi clan The Casalesi clan is a clan within the Camorra, an Italian criminal organization, operating from Casal di Principe and San Cipriano d'Aversa in the province of Caserta between Naples and Latium. Formed by Antonio Bardellino, it is a confederatio ...

, a

crime syndicate Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

within the

Camorra The Camorra (; ) is an Italian Mafia-typeMafia and Mafia-type orga ...

— a traditional

criminal organization Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

based in

Naples Naples (; it, Napoli ; nap, Napule ), from grc, Νεάπολις, Neápolis, lit=new city. is the regional capital of Campania and the third-largest city of Italy, after Rome and Milan, with a population of 909,048 within the city's adminis ...

and

Caserta Caserta () is the capital of the province of Caserta in the Campania region of Italy. It is an important agricultural, commercial, and industrial ''comune'' and city. Caserta is located on the edge of the Campanian plain at the foot of the Camp ...

, in the southern Italian region of

Campania Campania (, also , , , ) is an administrative Regions of Italy, region of Italy; most of it is in the south-western portion of the Italian peninsula (with the Tyrrhenian Sea to its west), but it also includes the small Phlegraean Islands and the i ...

. The film was released in Italy on 16 May 2008, and premiered in North America at the

Toronto International Film Festival The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF, often stylized as tiff) is one of the largest publicly attended film festivals in the world, attracting over 480,000 people annually. Since its founding in 1976, TIFF has grown to become a permane ...

on 11 September 2008, followed by release in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

on 13 February 2009. It received critical acclaim, winning the

Grand Prix Grand Prix ( , meaning ''Grand Prize''; plural Grands Prix), is a name sometimes used for competitions or sport events, alluding to the winner receiving a prize, trophy or honour Grand Prix or grand prix may refer to: Arts and entertainment ...

at the

2008 Cannes Film Festival The 61st Annual Cannes Film Festival was held from 14 to 25 May 2008. The President of the Official Jury was American actor and director Sean Penn. Twenty two films from fourteen countries were selected to compete for the ''Palme d'Or''. The awards ...

and seven

David di Donatello Awards The David di Donatello Awards, named after Donatello's ''David'', a symbolic statue of the Italian Renaissance, are film awards given out each year by the ''Accademia del Cinema Italiano'' (The Academy of Italian Cinema). There are 26 award cat ...

, including

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

and

Best Director Best Director is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organizations, festivals, and people's awards. It may refer to: Film awards * AACTA Award for Best Direction * Academy Award for Best Director * BA ...

(for Garrone). It also won five awards at the 2008

European Film Awards The European Film Awards (or European Film Academy Awards) have been presented annually since 1988 by the European Film Academy to recognize excellence in European cinematic achievements. The awards are given in 19 categories, of which the most ...

. A 2014 TV series of the same name is loosely based on the same book, but is otherwise unrelated to the film.

Plot

, Summer

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 6 ...

. Some

gangster A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Most gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from ''mob'' and the suffix '' -ster''. Gangs provide a level of organization and ...

s are relaxing in a tanning salon. An assassination occurs between clans of the Di Lauro Camorra syndicate which rule

Scampia Scampia (, ) is a modern suburb in the far north of Naples, whose population is about 80,000. To its south are the suburbs of Piscinola-Marianella, Miano and Secondigliano. It was built during the second half of the twentieth century. History ...

Secondigliano Secondigliano () is an old Italian municipality which became a modern suburb in the north of Naples. Geography Secondigliano lies between San Pietro a Patierno and Scampìa. History The name may derive from a contraction of "secondo" (second) an ...

, and triggers the so-called ''Faida di Scampia'' (

Scampia feud Scampia (, ) is a modern suburb in the far north of Naples, whose population is about 80,000. To its south are the suburbs of Piscinola-Marianella, Miano and Secondigliano. It was built during the second half of the twentieth century. History S ...

) (in reality the war started in October 2004 and ended in September 2005 with the arrest of

Paolo Di Lauro Paolo Di Lauro (; born August 26, 1953) is an Italian crime boss, leader of the Di Lauro Clan, a Camorra crime organization. He is also known as () among other aliases. In 2002 he was included in the list of most wanted fugitives in Italy and wa ...

) which forms the backstory of the entire movie. The ''Faida'' erupts between members of the Di Lauro syndicate and the so-called ''scissionisti'' (secessionists), who are led by

Raffaele Amato Raffaele Amato (born November 11, 1965 in Naples) is an Italian Camorra boss and head of the Amato-pagano clan, a Camorra clan from Naples. He is known by multiple nicknames in the Neapolitan criminal underworld, including ''"Lo Spagnolo"'' (Th ...

, brother of two of the men killed in the opening scene. The film intertwines five separate stories of people whose lives are touched by

organized crime Organized crime (or organised crime) is a category of transnational, national, or local groupings of highly centralized enterprises run by criminals to engage in illegal activity, most commonly for profit. While organized crime is generally th ...

. Don Ciro
Don Ciro is a timid middleman who distributes money to the families of imprisoned Di Lauro clan members. After the feud develops within the clan, he is ambushed by a pair of angry secessionists during a delivery. Fearing for his life, he later offers to defect to their side. They refuse his offer, and tell Ciro that he has to "pay" for his life by selling some of his former associates. He leads them to the location where he is given the money for distribution. The pair raid the place, killing everyone but Ciro, and take most of the money, leaving some cash on the table for Ciro. Ciro, still somewhat blood-spattered, walks off past several bodies to an uncertain future. Totò
Totò is a 13-year-old grocery delivery boy who witnesses some drug dealers abandon a bag of drugs and a gun while evading the police at ''Sette palazzi'' in

. He returns the items to the gang, and asks to join. His initiation in a

cavern A cave or cavern is a natural void in the ground, specifically a space large enough for a human to enter. Caves often form by the weathering of rock and often extend deep underground. The word ''cave'' can refer to smaller openings such as sea ...

consists of him being shot while wearing a

bulletproof vest A bulletproof vest, also known as a ballistic vest or a bullet-resistant vest, is an item of body armor that helps absorb the impact and reduce or stop penetration to the torso from firearm-fired projectiles and fragmentation from explosions. T ...

as a test of courage. As the feud intensifies, families in the neighborhood whose loyalties are suspect are ordered to move out or suffer violence; Totò's fellow gang members receive similar threats. Later, while hanging out with his gang in the streets of

, one of his gang is killed in a drive-by. The gang members decide to stand their ground and exact violent retribution by selecting a woman, Maria, as their next victim, as her son has joined a clan of Secondigliano secessionists. Totò, who has delivered groceries to Maria, is forced to lure her out of her apartment, where his comrades execute her. Roberto
Roberto is a graduate who works in

waste management Waste management or waste disposal includes the processes and actions required to manage waste from its inception to its final disposal. This includes the collection, transport, treatment and disposal of waste, together with monitoring ...

. His boss, Franco provides a low-cost

toxic waste Toxic waste is any unwanted material in all forms that can cause harm (e.g. by being inhaled, swallowed, or absorbed through the skin). Mostly generated by industry, consumer products like televisions, computers, and phones contain toxic chemi ...

disposal service that allows northern industrialists to dispose of materials like

chromium Chromium is a chemical element with the symbol Cr and atomic number 24. It is the first element in group 6. It is a steely-grey, lustrous, hard, and brittle transition metal. Chromium metal is valued for its high corrosion resistance and hardne ...

and

asbestos Asbestos () is a naturally occurring fibrous silicate mineral. There are six types, all of which are composed of long and thin fibrous crystals, each fibre being composed of many microscopic "fibrils" that can be released into the atmosphere b ...

in the countryside of southern Italy. Franco and Roberto orchestrate the illegal disposal of the waste at abandoned quarries and other environmentally-sensitive sites. During one such operation, a drum of toxic chemicals is accidentally spilled on a driver. Franco refuses to call an ambulance, and hires children to drive the trucks when the workers refuse to continue their work. Later, Franco and Roberto meet a family of farmers who, desperate to extinguish their debts, decide to allow the burial of chemical substances in their countryside. An elderly farmer gifts Roberto a basket of peaches, but Franco later tells him to throw them away because they are contaminated. Roberto then decides to quit his job and tells Franco he cannot bring himself to poison the earth, to which Franco says that he shouldn't think he is the better man, because he solving problems others had caused, and allowed people to repay their debts. Roberto walks alone on a desolate countryside road. Pasquale
Pasquale is an

haute couture ''Haute couture'' (; ; French for 'high sewing', 'high dressmaking') is the creation of exclusive custom-fitted high-end fashion design that is constructed by hand from start-to-finish. Beginning in the mid-nineteenth century, Paris became th ...

tailor who works for Iavarone, a garment factory owner with ties to the Camorra. Pasquale takes a night-job training Chinese garment workers. As they are competing with Camorra-controlled firms, the Chinese drive him to and from work in the trunk of their car. His secret work is discovered nonetheless, and his Chinese associates are killed in a drive-by. He survives the attack, but resigns his job. Later, working as a truck driver, he is in a transport café where he spots

Scarlett Johansson Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress. The world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has featured multiple times on the ''Forbes'' Celebrity 100 list. ''Time'' magazine named her one of the 100 ...

on TV wearing one of his dresses. He smiles wryly as he drives away. Marco and Ciro aka Sweet Pea
Marco and Ciro are two young wannabe-gangsters who try to operate their own small racket independently of the local clan. Impressed by mafia portrayals from Hollywood movies, they quote lines and spontaneously reenact scenes from '' Scarface'' in Walter Schiavone's villa while dropping references to

Tony Montana Antonio Montana is a fictional character and the protagonist of the 1983 film ''Scarface''. This character is portrayed by Al Pacino in the film and is voiced by André Sogliuzzo in the 2006 video game '' Scarface: The World Is Yours''. Embod ...

Miami Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...

, and

Colombian drug cartels A drug cartel is any criminal organization with the intention of supplying drug trafficking operations. They range from loosely managed agreements among various drug traffickers to formalized commercial enterprises. The term was applied when the ...

. Their first score is robbing African immigrants during a drug purchase at the Hotel Boomerang,

Castel Volturno Castel Volturno () is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Caserta in the Italy, Italian region Campania, located about northwest of Naples and about west of Caserta on the Volturno river. In 2010 Castel Volturno was inhabited by 25,000 ...

. The word of the incident gets to the local mob chieftain, who summons them and warns them under threat of violence not to repeat such behavior in the future. Ignoring him completely, they spy Camorra gangsters hiding a stash of weapons. They steal the weapons and amuse themselves by firing off rounds by the banks of a

Regi Lagni The Regi Lagni are a set of rectilinear and mostly man-made channels covering 1.095 km2 in 99 towns in the Province of Caserta, Province of Avellino, Province of Benevento and the Metropolitan City of Naples. They were built as part of canali ...

canal

estuary An estuary is a partially enclosed coastal body of brackish water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea. Estuaries form a transition zone between river environments and maritime environment ...

in the

marshland A marsh is a wetland that is dominated by herbaceous rather than woody plant species.Keddy, P.A. 2010. Wetland Ecology: Principles and Conservation (2nd edition). Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. 497 p Marshes can often be found at ...

. Once they run out of money, they use their guns to rob a

video arcade An amusement arcade (often referred to as a video arcade, amusements or simply arcade) is a venue where people play arcade games, including arcade video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, merchandisers (such as c ...

, and spend their stolen funds at a strip club. The gangsters, angered, find them and threaten to kill them if they don't return the weapons within a day. The pair prove stubborn. Zio Vittorio, one of the local gangsters, approaches them in a bar with an offer to come work for him. He offers them €10,000 if they return the weapons and murder Peppe 'O Cavallaro, in fact uncle Bernardino. They accept the

contract A contract is a legally enforceable agreement between two or more parties that creates, defines, and governs mutual rights and obligations between them. A contract typically involves the transfer of goods, services, money, or a promise to tran ...

, which turns out to be a trap, as they are ambushed and killed by Giovanni, Bernardino, Vittorio and others at the location of their supposed target, an abandoned beach resort next to Regi Lagni canal estuary. The last scene shows their dead bodies being carried away by a front end loader.

Cast

Reception

Box office

In the opening weekend, the film was the most watched in Italy, with a collection of €1,825,643. The film grossed €10.2 million in Italy, making it the top 10 grossing movie in the 2007–08 season. The film made a further $36.5 million internationally.GOMORRA 2008
/ref>

Critical reception

''Gomorrah'' received critical acclaim. Review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

gives the film a score of 92% based on reviews from 152 critics, with an average score of 7.7/10.

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

gave the film a weighted score of 87/100, based on 30 critiques, which it ranks as "universal acclaim". In reviewing Garrone's film based on the book,

Christoph Huber Christoph Huber MD, FMH, FECTS is a Swiss Cardiothoracic surgery, cardiac surgeon who is a professor and the head of the Division of Cardiac and Vascular Surgery at the Geneva University Hospitals, University Hospital Geneva, Switzerland.

wrote: "With its interest in moving beyond the categories of novel or non-fiction, Saviano's work has been identified as part of a

heterogeneous Homogeneity and heterogeneity are concepts often used in the sciences and statistics relating to the uniformity of a substance or organism. A material or image that is homogeneous is uniform in composition or character (i.e. color, shape, siz ...

strain of national literature, subsumed as the

New Italian Epic New Italian Epic is a definition suggested by the Italian literary group Wu Ming Foundation to describe a body of literary works written in Italy by various authors starting in 1993, at the end of the so called ‘First Republic’. This body of wo ...

. A term that certainly isn't disgraced by ''Gomorrah'', the film."

Manohla Dargis Manohla June Dargis () is an American film critic. She is one of the chief film critics for ''The New York Times''. She is a five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism. Career Before being a film critic for ''The New York Times'', ...

of the ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

'' stated, "part of what's bracing about ''Gomorrah'', and makes it feel different from so many American crime movies, is both its deadly serious take on violence and its global understanding of how far and wide the mob's tentacles reach, from high fashion to the very dirt." Jonah Weiner of ''

Slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic rock. ...

'' stated, "''Gomorrah'' is a deeply moralizing film, brooking no ethical ambiguity or mitigating factors in its hellish vision of organized crime." Filmmaker

Martin Scorsese Martin Charles Scorsese ( , ; born November 17, 1942) is an American film director, producer, screenwriter and actor. Scorsese emerged as one of the major figures of the New Hollywood era. He is the recipient of List of awards and nominatio ...

, who appreciated the "despair" and "frankness" of the film, allowed his name to be used for marketing purposes when the film was released in the United States through a presentation credit on promotional materials.

Top 10 lists

The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2008.The Best and Worst Movies of 2009

* 2nd – Josh Rosenblatt, ''

The Austin Chronicle ''The Austin Chronicle'' is an alternative weekly newspaper published every Thursday in Austin, Texas, United States. The paper is distributed through free news-stands, often at local eateries or coffee houses frequented by its targeted demogr ...

'' * 5th –

Kenneth Turan Kenneth Turan (; born October 27, 1946) is an American retired film critic, author, and lecturer in the Master of Professional Writing Program at the University of Southern California. He was a film critic for the ''Los Angeles Times'' from 1991 ...

, ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...

'' (tied with ''

Happy-Go-Lucky Happy Go Lucky may refer to: Film and television * ''Happy Go Lucky'' (1936 film), an American film * ''Happy Go Lucky'' (1943 film), an American musical film starring Betty Hutton * ''Happy Go Lucky'' (1946 film), a French film * ''Happy Go L ...

'') * 5th – Lisa Schwarzbaum, ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' * 5th – Marc Savlov, ''

'' * 6th –

A.O. Scott Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis. Early life Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...

, ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' * 6th –

Wesley Morris Wesley Morris (born 1975) is an American film critic and podcast host. He is currently critic-at-large for ''The New York Times'', as well as co-host, with Jenna Wortham, of the ''New York Times'' podcast '' Still Processing.'' Previously, Morr ...

, ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' * 7th – Marjorie Baumgarten, ''

'' * 10th – ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

Internet meme

In November 2022, a post on the social media site

Tumblr Tumblr (stylized as tumblr; pronounced "tumbler") is an American microblogging and social networking website founded by David Karp in 2007 and currently owned by Automattic. The service allows users to post multimedia and other content to a sho ...

went viral which featured a photograph of a pair of "knockoff" boots with a tag including text likely intended to reference ''Gomorrah'', with the film's name misspelled as "Goncharov" and Garrone's name misspelled as "Matteo JWHJ0715". The viral post quickly spawned a

fandom A fandom is a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Fans typically are interested in even minor details of the objects of their fandom and spend a significant ...

around the non-existent film ''Goncharov'', with users collaborating to establish a plot for the film, create

fan art Fan art or fanart is artwork created by fans of a work of fiction and derived from a series character or other aspect of that work. They are usually done by amateur artists, semi-professionals or professionals. As fan labor, fan art refers to ...

, and create posts purporting to analyze ''Goncharov'''s thematic material.

Awards and nominations

The movie premiered in North America at the

on 11 September 2008. It was nominated for the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

and won the

at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008. It won the

ARRI The Arri Group () is a German manufacturer of motion picture film equipment. Based in Munich, the company was founded in 1917. It produces professional motion picture cameras, lenses, lighting and post-production equipment. Hermann Simon menti ...

Zeiss Zeiss or Zeiß may refer to: People *Carl Zeiss (1816–1888), German optician and entrepreneur *Emil Zeiß (1833–1910), German Protestant minister and painter Companies *Carl Zeiss AG, German manufacturer of optics, industrial measurem ...

Award at the

Munich Film Festival Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

. The film was selected by the ''Associazione Nazionale Industrie Cinematografiche Audiovisive e Multimediali'' to represent

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical re ...

in contention for

Best Foreign Language Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

at the

81st Academy Awards The 81st Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2008 and took place on February 22, 2009, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 ...

. Despite the earlier success at Cannes, and defying expectations, it failed to be short-listed. On 11 December ''Gomorrah'' received a

Golden Globe Awards The Golden Globe Awards are accolades bestowed by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association beginning in January 1944, recognizing excellence in both American and international film and television. Beginning in 2022, there are 105 members of t ...

nomination for

. ''Gomorrah'' won five awards at the 2008

, including Best European Film in

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

on 6 December 2008. The film received seven awards at ''L'accademia del Cinema Italiano'' 2009

. It was also nominated for the

of the

Belgian Syndicate of Cinema Critics The Belgian Film Critics Association (french: Union de la critique de cinéma, UCC) is an organization of film critics from publications based in Brussels, Belgium. History The Belgian Film Critics Association was founded in the early 1950s in Br ...

Historical basis

The film, following the book upon which it is based, portrays events identifiably similar to actual historical ones; for example, the

. In the film's credits, the filmmakers thank the districts of

and

Torre del Greco Torre del Greco (; nap, Torre d' 'o Grieco; "Greek man's Tower") is a ''comune'' in the Metropolitan City of Naples in Italy, with a population of c. 85,000 . The locals are sometimes called ''Corallini'' because of the once plentiful cora ...

, as well as the ''

Carabinieri The Carabinieri (, also , ; formally ''Arma dei Carabinieri'', "Arm of Carabineers"; previously ''Corpo dei Carabinieri Reali'', "Royal Carabineers Corps") are the national gendarmerie of Italy who primarily carry out domestic and foreign polic ...

'' of nearby

Boscoreale Boscoreale (; "Royal Grove") is an Italian ''comune ''and town in the Metropolitan City of Naples, Campania, with a population of 27,457 in 2011. Located in the Vesuvius National Park, under the slopes of Mount Vesuvius, it is known for the fruit ...

: these three suburban areas around the Bay of Naples feature cityscapes appropriate for filming this story. The scene at the truck stop where Pasquale sees

on TV wearing one of the tailor's dresses is based on a portion of the book where

Angelina Jolie Angelina Jolie (; born Angelina Jolie Voight; June 4, 1975) is an American actress, filmmaker, humanitarian and former Special Envoy to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The recipient of numerous accolades, including an Academy Award ...

wore a counterfeit dress to the Oscars. Garrone could not obtain that footage from the

Academy An academy ( Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy ...

and was forced to buy footage of Johansson at the

Venice Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival ( it, Mostra Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica della Biennale di Venezia, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival he ...

in 2006 – even though press reports indicate hers was a vintage gown.

Alleged and documented connections to the Camorra

Oreste Spagnuolo, member of the

and main perpetrator of the Castel Volturno massacre, has alleged that Garrone paid a pizzo of 20,000 euros in order to proceed with the film. He also insinuates that Terracciano was cast as a part of this deal.

Cast members arrested

Many amateur and non-professional actors from the area were cast in the film. Several are known to have actual involvement in Camorra clans and have been arrested on various occasions since the film's release, notably: * Bernardino Terracciano - extortion (2008), sentenced to life for murder in 2016 * Giovanni Venosa - drug trafficking, extortion (2008), sentenced to 13 years in 2009 * Salvatore Russo - drug dealing (2016, 2018) * Salvatore Abruzzese - drug dealing (2021) Similar accusations and arrests have surrounded the subsequent

TV series A television show – or simply TV show – is any content produced for viewing on a television set which can be broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, or cable, excluding breaking news, advertisements, or trailers that are typically placed betw ...

Soundtrack

# "Ma si vene stasera" – Alessio # "La Nostra Storia" – Raffaello # "Brava gente" –

Nino D'Angelo Gaetano "Nino" D'Angelo (born 21 June 1957) is an Italian singer, songwriter, actor, television personality, film director, screenwriter and author. He was born to a poor family in San Pietro a Patierno, a suburb of Naples, and dropped out of ...

# "Must Pray" – Pieter Vercampt # "Macchina 50" – Rosario Miraggio # "Ragione e sentimento" – Maria Nazionale # "Un giornio d'Amore" – Daniele Stefani # "Sadeness (Part 1)" –

Enigma Enigma may refer to: *Riddle, someone or something that is mysterious or puzzling Biology *ENIGMA, a class of gene in the LIM domain Computing and technology * Enigma (company), a New York-based data-technology startup * Enigma machine, a family ...

# "Esageratamente" – Anthony # "O' schiavo e o' re" – Nino D'Angelo # "Xiao Cheng Gu Shi" –

Teresa Teng Teng Li-Chun (; 29 January 1953 – 8 May 1995), commonly known as Teresa Teng, was a Taiwanese singer, actress, musician and philanthropist. Referred to by some as " Asia's eternal queen of pop," Teng became a cultural icon for her contributio ...

# "Viento 'e mare (feat. Maria Nazionale)" –

Matthew Herbert Matthew Herbert (born 1972), also known as Herbert, Doctor Rockit, Radio Boy, Mr. Vertigo, Transformer, and Wishmountain, is a British electronic musician. He often takes sounds from everyday items to produce electronic music. Career Mat ...

# "L'amica di mia moglie" – Tommy Riccio # "Finchè 'o sole me vo'" – Maria Nazionale # "Herculaneum" –

Robert Del Naja Robert Del Naja (; born 21 January 1965), also known as 3D, is a British artist, musician, singer and songwriter. He emerged as a graffiti artist and member of the Bristol collective the Wild Bunch, and later as a founding member and sole consi ...

References

External links

* * * * *
''Gomorrah: Terminal Beach''
an essay by Chuck Stephens at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cinep ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gomorrah 2008 crime drama films 2008 films Films based on non-fiction books about organized crime Films directed by Matteo Garrone 2000s Italian-language films European Film Awards winners (films) Hyperlink films Films set in Naples Italian crime drama films Cannes Grand Prix winners Italian docudrama films Films about organized crime in Italy Films about the Camorra Camorra Films shot in Naples Films shot in Venice Fandango (Italian company) films