Watch The New Clip From BLACK SOULS (ANIME NERE)

In his review of Vitagraph Films’ BLACK SOULS (ANIME NERE), Travis Keune wrote the movie is, “a richly deep story about an unconventional “family business” that conjures up the essence of THE GODFATHER but distances itself even further from the genre stereotypes than just about any film we’ve seen in recent years.”

Read the rest of the review here and check out the brand new clip.

Based on real events described in Gioacchino Criaco’s novel, BLACK SOULS (ANIME NERE) is a tale of violence begetting violence and complex morality inherited by each generation in rural, ancient Calabria, a reallife mafia (‘Ndrangheta) seat in Southern Italy.

The Carbone family consists of three brothers, Luigi (Marco Leonardi) and Rocco (Peppino Mazzotta) who are engaged in the family business of international drug trade and Luciano (Fabrizio Ferracane) who has remained in the ancestral town of Africo in the Aspromonte mountains on the Mediterranean coast – herding goats.

His 20-year old son Leo (Giuseppe Fumo) has little respect for his farmer father, but idealizes his Mafioso uncles. When Leo shoots up a bar owned by a rival family with a longstanding blood feud with the Carbones, his reckless actions create trouble that brings the whole family back to Africo for the inevitable bloody showdown.

Director Francesco Munzi made the film in Africo in the province of Reggio Calabria, on the Ionic coast, relatively unknown to tourists.

“Rising up from the sea, are some of the most beautiful, untamed mountains in Italy – the Aspromonte. The landscape is marked by the anarchic building developments so indicative of the south of Italy.

When I said I wanted to make the film there, everyone tried to discourage me: it’s too difficult, it’s inaccessible, it’s too dangerous.

It was an impossible film. I sought help from Gioacchino Criaco, author of Anime Nere, the book on which the film is loosely based. I arrived in Calabria full of prejudice and fear. I discovered a very complex and diverse reality. I saw mistrust turn into curiosity, and people opened their doors to us. I mixed my actors with the residents of Africo, who acted and worked with the cast. Without them, this film would not have been as rich. Africo has a very tough history of criminality, but it can help us understand many things about our country. From Africo, we have a better view of Italy.”

BLACK SOULS (“Anime nere”) opens in New York on Friday, April 10th, 2015, with a nationwide release to follow.

In Italian with English Subtitles

Visit the official site: vitagraphfilms.com/black_souls