Book on Italaian Mafia debuts as film
The anti-mafia book “Gomorra” made its film debut at the Cannes Film Festival this week.
From AFP:
The disturbing anti-mafia bestseller “Gomorra” that provoked death threats against its Italian author makes its debut in film form in Cannes on Sunday.
Roberto Saviano’s expose of the Naples-area Camorra mafia has sold more than a million copies since the book was published in Italy in 2006.
From gangland warfare to the Camorra’s infiltration into the building industry, arms and drug trafficking, and even the mishandling of toxic waste for a profit, Saviano paints a terrifying portrait of a crime syndicate that will stop at nothing.
The revelations of Saviano, born in a poor section of Naples 28 years ago, have enraged some mafia bosses.
Police discovered a plan to eliminate the young author and placed him under protection at the end of 2006.
“I am constantly escorted by police, I move house all the time,” Saviano told the daily La Repubblica this month. “I don’t have a normal life anymore.”
He added: “What the mafia couldn’t forgive was not the book but its success. If the book hadn’t been published in Naples, I think it would have been okay, the mafiosi would even share it among themselves because they would be pleased that someone told their story.”
