Gelsomina Verde

Directed by Massimiliano Pacifico

Starring: Pietro Casella, Giuseppe D'Ambrosio, Davide Iodice, Margherita Laterza, Francesco Verde, Francesco Lattarulo, Maddalena Stornaiuolo

Year: 2019

Provenance: Italy

Review Author: Roberto Matteucci

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"You are in the wrong project."

It is November 24th, 2004 in Naples. It is the day of the umpteenth Camorra atrocity. The victim was a girl:“It was the body of Gelsomina Verde, a girl of twenty-two. Kidnapped, tortured, killed with a close up shot in the nape which had come out of her forehead. Then they had thrown her into a car, her car, and burned her."(1) wrote Roberto Saviano in Gomorra.

Why did Camorra kill a young woman?

Saviano again: “She had a boyfriend, Gennaro Notturno, who had chosen to stay with the clans and then approached the Spagnoli one. Before she went out with him for few months. ... Gennaro had been condemned to death, but he had found a hiding place, who knows where ..."(1)

The girl is involved in a real battle, the Scampia clan war. A bloody conflict between the families of the Camorra. Gelsomina's former boyfriend had ties to the Camorra. The rival clan had sentenced him to death and the killers were convinced that Gelsomina knew his hiding place.

It is not the first crime against an innocent person. This one attracted attention for her evil end: she was tortured and later burned.

The episode caused the same disgusting sensation of the tragic death of Giuseppe Di Matteo, thirteen-year-old, was killed and dissolved in acid.

The director Massimiliano Pacifico narrates her life and dead in the movie Gelsomina Verde, presented to the 55th Pesaro Film Festival. Massimiliano Pacifico used the experience as documentary filmmaker for Il teatro al lavoro, broadcast in Venice 2018.

With Gelsomina Verde, the theatre is the structure of the film. The author's idea: not to directly exhibits the events of Gelsomina called Mina but through the mediation and interpretation of a heterogeneous theatre group.

A woman with a trolley is going through a park. Two women arrive with a suitcase and then other people. They are going to the same destination: a fascinating building inside a vast garden.

They do not know each other. They have never seen before, they were selected to act a play about Mina.

It begins with a succession of monologues, managing to describing the various protagonists.

The actors focus on their roles, they create tension and anxiety in the monologue on torture. Her torment was pure cruelty, Mina did not know the refuge of him, and they know.

The rehearsals are alternated with file footage images. Metaphysical and unreal tones are intersected with the insensitive realism of the policemen in TV news. It seems obvious, it is not a fiction but a true sad page.

The director focuses mainly on the exaltation of words in soliloquies. The logos idealizes the myth of Gelsomina, her sanctification. In these cases, the words are insufficient. Therefore, the actors explicitly watch the camera.

Why? Who is the characters' speech addressed? To the assassins? To mafia? To the conscience of the spectators?

The task of Pacifico is to guide us.

In the cast, there is also the brother of Gelsomina, Francesco.

Francesco is the spokesman of the family, a normal family, born in a beautiful but unfortunate place. His brother shows it on his walk in Naples. His voice-over is descriptive of a sentiment.

The rehearsals proceed quickly. The movie starts to have a construction, a clear and political dimension. The canisters are hung between the protagonists as in a work by Kounellis. The cans symbolize the fire with which Mina was burned. The actress, Maddalena Stornaiolo, describes her sacrifice with intense excitement. There are awareness and maturity in acting. The canisters have an iconic presence, such as Saint Lawrence's gridiron or the arrows for Saint Sebastian. The canonization of Gelsomina proceeds.

Being born in an uncomfortable place makes everyone weaker. The family got many problems. Too many. A daughter slaughtered, the risk of mafia revenge, the lack of money.

People judge because the parents have accepted compensation of three hundred thousand euro (2) from the executioners, It is presumption: : "There is one lawgiver and judge who is able to save or to destroy. Who then are you to judge your neighbor?"(3)

The choices must be lived in person before express judgments.

The theatrical play faces the contrasts of the story with courage.

To describe the uncertainties, one of the actors is chosen. His thinking is not a conspiracy but indicates natural suspicions. Among the interpreters start a quarrel; structurally represented with a hard confrontation between a fake teacher, who personify the absolute truth, and a perplexed student. It is a lovely scene, elegantly developed despite the victimization rhetoric and the usual blah blah blah on the bad state. Unfortunately, pillars of modern literature on the mafia.

Besides, there are two others themes.

The first one is the family accepted money by the killers.

The second one is the obvious suspects of the police.

The director has no mercy, he does not accept criticism of the sanctification of Gelsomina. Therefore, he outlines the contradictory between Francesco and a policeman using a quarrelsome shot-reverse shot. The scene is at the limit for the symmetrical and unnatural position of the two characters, selected to accentuate the cynicism.

The film continues until the murder and funeral.

The film is apparently complicated but the author maintains it with authority. His direction is classic, to underline a model: fighting against the evil. He succeeds with skill and professionalism.

The monologues towards the camera are excessively verbose, but the other shots are elegant and refined. Especially the allusive dance sequence of the protagonists, the dancers create an graceful choreography.

The interpreters, except the one forced to express the doubts, are particular, central in outlining the strong characters. Francesco has the easiest role: he is himself. Then there is Maddalena Stornaiolo – Gelsomina - in the mantra: guilty ... guilty ... guilty.

Massimiliano Pacifico knows how to combine the two styles. Sensitize the highlights, such as killing the girl. He uses only actors and static positions. Symbolic, surreal scenes: few interpreters and many subliminal messages. The film succeeded, now we know whom Gelsomina is, I also understood it.

(1) Roberto Saviano, Gomorra, Mondadori, Milan, Oscar, 2016 edition

(2) https://corrieredelmezzogiorno.corriere.it/bari/notizie/cronaca/2010/11-marzo-2010/di-lauro-junior-risarcisce-famiglia-gelsomina-verde-300-mila-euro--1602636944197. shtml

(3) James 4, 12

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