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It’s worth it just for the leather. The prequel to formidable Neapolitan mobster saga Gomorrah hurls us into the filthy bustle of Secondigliano, a broken quarter of northern Naples which, in 1977, has been abandoned by God and government, leaving organised crime as the only alternative to destitution. But even in this purgatory, the style of the city and the late 70s abides: the young men of Secondigliano might not be able to escape their fate, but they’ll look fantastic trying.
Sashaying forcefully through the throng is Angelo (Francesco Pellegrino), with his messianic collar-length curls, eyes that seem to mascara themselves and an array of spectacular leather jackets. Kids gather to gawp when his car skids to a dusty halt and Angelo, chest hair and medallion nestling in the open collar of a patterned silk shirt in two exquisite shades of brown, emerges and strides to his next appointment. Angelo is in his early 20s and is the hippest gangster in his neighbourhood, but he bears the pained intensity of the thwarted: on a citywide level he has no sway, and he’s worked out that the cut of the action the big bosses give him is a paltry percentage of the overall pie. His crew, sporting their own leather outerwear in boxy mustard or calf-length burgundy, are happy enough, but Angelo wants more.
Observing him from afar is a kid who’s even further down the food chain. Pietro (Luca Lubrano) is in his mid-teens, with a greasy parting and bumfluff. Every day he wears the same jumbo corduroy coat, which looks sad next to Angelo’s sharp clobber while still being, in our eyes, pretty cool. Pietro has nothing but his wits, yet his desire to improve himself makes him the natural leader of his cheerful gang of petty-thieving urchins, and if he can prove his worth to Angelo, his ascent can begin. His surname is Savastano … Gomorrah fans know that, in 30 years’ time, Pietro Savastano will be a king.
The dashing Angelo and determined Pietro soon become colleagues, at first when Angelo’s team are ambushed on their own turf when they’re keeping cash on the premises overnight. Evidently there is a rat in the operation who must be found and mercilessly dealt with, a classic mafia tale told here with mournful elegance, as the rain pours down and Pietro’s eyes open. Not for the last time, we attend a lavish funeral where everyone in attendance knows that the murderer is among them and that the deceased had it coming.
The two new allies grow closer as Angelo, desperate to mix in with the older, all-powerful dons – majestic double-breasted suits; impossibly large, square, tinted spectacles – embroils himself in a drugs operation that pits family against family and young against old. There is always a boyish, even vaguely Bugsy Malone cheekiness offsetting the seriousness of the business being conducted, for instance when Angelo and Pietro pull off a dock heist by distracting security guards using a football and 22 10-year-olds.
But Gomorrah: The Origins is respectful of its characters’ predicament. The word “freedom” keeps popping up in the dialogue, forever promised to foot soldiers in return for their loyalty, but never actually given to anyone except the men at the top. Angelo and Pietro’s difficult backgrounds mean their chances of success are small – we see how impoverished Pietro is, while Angelo’s troubled youth is summed up by a recollection from his uncle, who doesn’t have many lines but does utter this corker: “You know what your mum did after she shot your dad’s killer? She came home to breastfeed you!”
As he’s plotting his way into the mob, meanwhile, Pietro meets a girl, Imma (Tullia Venezia), who has a comfortable life in the nice apartment she shares with her loving parents. Imma tells Pietro about her dream of studying music at Juilliard; Pietro quietens when he’s asked what his dream is, since poor boys like him aren’t allowed them. Again, Gomorrah fans know how that story turns out, and it starts with Imma realising that organised crime’s tentacles touch her family too, which means she isn’t free either.
With children and young adults as its protagonists, Gomorrah: The Origins may not have the heft of other premium gangster stories, but although it delivers familiar, wonderfully rich mob-drama set pieces – at a fabulous garden party where the various families meet, eat and furiously scheme against each other, you half-expect a young Al Pacino to walk into shot – its youthful main characters lend it a freshness and tenderness that standard crime sagas lack. Dust off your wildest vintage fabrics and hit the streets.
