15/11/2007

At the end of Palermo-Milan One Way, we left Mafia accountant Turi Leofonte (Giancarlo Giannini) in a courtroom testifying against the boss who tried in every way possible to keep him from making it to the trial alive. Eleven years later, Leofonte has served his sentence but harbours too many secrets to be safe.

Directed, like the previous film, by Claudio Fragasso, Milano-Palermo – Il ritorno (“Milan-Palermo – The Return”) unites the survivors of the first instalment (agents Raoul Bova and Ricky Memphis and Leofonte’s daughter Romina Mondello) and features new faces Libero De Rienzo, Gabriella Pession and Simone Corrente (known at home for the TV series Distretto di Polizia).

When criticised for some far-fetched plot points, Fragasso says he discredits discussions on credibility: “[The film] is an heir of Neorealism, but I don’t want to be a slave to the realistic. I’m more interested in moving audiences, like US films do, or Luc Besson in France”.

Both the director and screenwriter Rossella Drudi say their goal is to resuscitate a kind of cinema that in recent years seems the prerogative of television: “Italy needs horror, action movies, crime dramas: it’s the only way to export our films”, claims Fragasso, who has made similar films in the past that won audiences across the Atlantic. The latest, Palermo-Milano, was distributed in the US by 20th Century Fox.

For now, Buena Vista International will release Milano-Palermo – Il ritorno – produced by Globe Films with Bova’s Sanmarco Film – in Italy on November 23 on over 250 screens.

(Translated from Italian)