Hard-hitting, complex and filmed in a fluid fly-on-the-wall style, Garrone’s Cannes Grand Prize winner, adapted from Roberto Saviano’s controversial award-winning book, examines in vivid detail the organized crime syndicate known as the Camorra. Focusing on the power its members wield in a northern suburb of Naples and their influence on occupations from dressmaking to waste disposal, this hyper-realistic drama pointedly demonstrates the organization’s ability to destroy familial bonds as well as individual lives. Far from the glamorized portrait of the Mafia common in American films, Gomorrah is grim, gritty, almost documentary-like cinema—an exposé of widespread corruption and an impassioned demand that something be done to halt its spread.

Written by Maurizio Braucci, Ugo Chiti, Gianni di Gregorio, Matteo Garrone, Massimo Gaudioso, Roberto Saviano. Photographed by Marco Onorato. With Toni Servillo, Gianfelice Imparato, Maria Nazionale, Salvatore Cantalupo (135 min. IFC Films).