Dark and gloomy as winter twilight, solid and stark as Sicily’s mountain cliffs, “The Sicilian Girl” is a hard-hitting movie of violence and revenge, spawned by the age-old code of the Mafia. A controller of practically everything that happens on the island, the male-dominated society adapts Teddy Roosevelt’s line to, “Speak softly and carry a loaded gun.”
The story of Rita Atria, called Rita Mancuso on screen, offers a fine portrayal of the 17-year-old girl whose diaries were the weapons for the arrest and trial of dozens of Sicilian mafiosos. Some trials still are going on, though Rita and Paolo Borsalino, the prosecutor, are long dead. The two actresses who portray her, first Miriana Faja and then Veronica D’Agostino, are impressive, especially Miriana as a fiery 11-year-old, desperately in love with her father, blind to his illegal activities, including murder, defiant and angry when she talks to authority.
D’Agostino is equally powerful, but shows more restraint. She retains optimism almost to the end, believing that the triumph of justice will bring freedom, and she is slow to realize, and shows beautifully, that it’s all an idealistic waste of time.
Gerard Jugnot stands tall as the prosecutor, offering a credible performance as a man who has the courage of his convictions at any price.
Rita’s father, Don Michele (Marcello Mazzarella) is a leader of one clan in the small Sicilian town, Don Salvo (Mario Pupella) leads the other. When they have a falling out, only one remains standing, and Rita, ferociously angry, starts keeping a diary. Both actresses show emotion in volcano-like eruptions. Speaking of emotions, Lucia Sardo, as Rosa, Rita’s mother, wrapped in black like the oldest of daily communicants, is a master at showing her feelings in her face, eyes and posture. Pain, loyalty, honor, revenge, anger all come through, but there seems no room for love in terms of her daughter.
Rita is so wrapped up in trials and in her quest that the movie rarely gets inside her, except for a lovely day at the beach with Lorenzo (Primo Reggiani), a member of the police detail sent to protect her. A strong movie, a little draggy here and there, but well-written.
The Sicilian Girl opens today at the Tivoli
—Joe