Nothing serious

Il delitto Mattarella

January 6, 1980. President of the Sicily Piersanti Mattarella is going to Mass with his family when a young man approaches his car and shoots him in cold blood, killing him. The young Deputy Prosecutor on duty that day is Pietro Grasso, future General Anti-Mafia Prosecutor and President of the Italian Senate. His investigations are continued by Giovanni Falcone, who uncovers dangerous connections between the Mafia, the ruling Christian Democratic Party, neo-fascist terrorists, and secret services.

Pellegrino

Due cani

Profumo di Zagara

The life of Giuseppe, Maria, and their friends growing up in the charming Sicilian village of Villabate, which evolves over generations.

A noi ci dicono

Fabrizio, Dante and Roberto have 14 years old and they live in Palermo in the ZEN. How is their life, their universe?

Bitter Love

Letizia Battaglia (1935–2022) stands among the greatest figures of Italian social documentary photography. At nearly forty, this mother of three left everything behind to become a photojournalist and started working for the newspaper L’Ora. She captured her native Palermo with rare intensity, documenting both the brutal grip of the Cosa Nostra on the city and the everyday lives of its inhabitants with a focus on women and children. A committed activist, she became politically involved in the fight against the mafia during the 1980s. In this intimate portrait, Letizia Battaglia tells her story through her most iconic photographs. Through her gaze, at once tender and piercing, the full complexity of Palermo comes to light.

Outskirts

The documentary explores the outskirts of Palermo through the lens of photographer Francesco Faraci, whose work paints a portrait of the “out-of-focus cities”—areas that have long been marginalized, exploited, and rarely the recipients of adequate investment. This structural neglect has contributed to the entrenchment of conditions of decay, poverty, and a lack of opportunities, fostering the rise of power structures alternative to the state, foremost among them the mafia. Through the story of his own experiences in Sicily’s suburbs, the photographer reflects on possible strategies for regenerating these places, highlighting how they still represent spaces capable of preserving a human and relational authenticity that has progressively disappeared from urban centers.

Shooting the Mafia

Sicilian photojournalist Letizia Battaglia began a long battle against the ruthless Cosa Nostra when she first photographed the sinister scene of a brutal murder. Documenting the barbaric rule of the Italian Mafia, she was an unwavering witness to its crimes. Her art and courage helped end the horrific and bloody reign of the Corleonesi clan.

Reality is worse

In Palermo (Italy), a group of supporters found a grassroots football club to oppose the commercial model of modern football and return the game to its community, while the daily lives of members, players, and volunteers intertwine through personal sacrifices, dreams, and resistance.

Mafia Is Not What It Used to Be

Palermo, Sicily, Italy, 2017. Twenty-five years after the murders of anti-mafia judges Giovanni Falcone, on May 23, 1992, and Paolo Borsellino, on July 19, 1992; and on the occasion of the tributes held in memory of both heroes, skeptical photographer Letizia Battaglia, chronicler of their titanic combat, criticizes the opportunism of shady characters who, like businessman Ciccio Mira, profit from the commemoration of both tragedies.

Our Godfather

The story of how Sicilian Mafia boss Tommaso Buscetta (1928-2000), the Godfather of Two Worlds, revealed, starting in 1984, the deepest secrets of the organization, thus helping to convict the hundreds of mafiosi who were tried in the trial held in Palermo between 1986 and 1987.

The little feast

Among the narrow alleys of Via Panneria and Piazza Monte di Pietà, in the ancient heart of Palermo, the echo of a miracle still resonates. Here in 1624 lived Vincenzo Bonelli: grief-stricken by the plague, he climbed Mount Pellegrino to end his life. Saint Rosalia appeared to him, entrusting her relics to save the city. Where her first votive shrine stood, a timeless devotion endures. For over a century, alongside Palermo's official Festino, this neighborhood has celebrated its intimate 'Festinello'—a visceral experience blending pure devotion with the warmth of 'schiticchielli' (traditional street banquets). Today, only about twenty people keep this tradition alive. This documentary tells the story of their poetic resistance as guardians of an invaluable cultural heritage. It is a vibrant hymn to life, memory, and community: 'Viva Palermo and Santa Rosalia!'

The Polizzi Project

When Australian artist Eolo Bottaro revives the lost Triform Goddess Isis, Polizzi's forgotten history revives. This gripping documentary captures the statue's creation, the town's awe, and the artist's unexpected bond with the Sicilian town.

Adventures of Casanova

Casanova, a young patriot in 18th-century Sicily, upon learning that his father and sister have been murdered, returns to Palermo and engages in guerilla tactics against the forces of the Governor. Lady Bianca, the Governor's daughter, is in love with one of the patriots, Lorenzo, and desires to escape from the palace. Her lady-in-waiting, Zanetta, enlists the aid of Casanova and he rescues them and takes them to the partisan's camp. The rebels are victorious. Lady Bianca makes plans to marry Lorenzo, and Casanova and Zanetta have similar plans.

The Leopard

As Garibaldi's troops begin the unification of Italy in the 1860s, an aristocratic Sicilian family grudgingly adapts to the sweeping social changes undermining their way of life.

Excellent Cadavers

Palermo, Sicily, 1984. Examining magistrate Giovanni Falcone allies with Tomasso Buscetta, a former mobster, to defeat the clan of Corleone, the ruthless Mafia faction that rules Cosa Nostra with an iron hand, cruelly eliminating all those who dare to oppose its immense power: other criminals, policemen, judges, even innocent civilians. One of them wants revenge, the other wants justice. But only one can survive such an unequal fight.

Piazza D'Amore

Italian girls live out their passions at places in Palermo and Rome.

Come Into the Light

In 1990s Palermo, Pino Puglisi is a priest from the neglected Brancaccio neighborhood dedicated in helping kids to get off the streets and creating an embracing place of hope and solidarity in his church, which means trouble for the local Mafia. He continues his solitary fight until the bitter end.