Franco Maresco's 'La mafia non è più quella di una volta' at Venice 76

Franco Maresco returns to Venice with his third film in competition at the 76th Venice Film Festival, 'La mafia non è più quella di una volta', a surreal and grotesque look at Sicily. The film features photographer Letizia Battaglia, who on May 23, 2017, at the Falcone Tree on Via Notarbartolo, laments the superficiality of anti-mafia commemorations. Maresco also encounters disgraced anti-mafia journalist Pino Maniaci near the Ucciardone bunker courtroom, and follows neomelodic music impresarios Ciccio Mira and Matteo Mannino as they organize a party in Palermo's Zen district. Maresco describes the film as the inevitable sequel to 'Belluscone. Una storia siciliana' (Venice 2014), pushing further into a territory where the distinction between good and evil, mafia and anti-mafia, has collapsed into meaningless spectacle. The film provocatively includes unverified claims by Mira about the State-Mafia negotiation trial and President Sergio Mattarella, questioning whether the silence of Palermo's poor and delinquent population means Falcone and Borsellino died in vain.