{"id":4800,"date":"2009-02-09T14:19:26","date_gmt":"2009-02-09T14:19:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/?p=4800"},"modified":"2009-02-10T19:18:45","modified_gmt":"2009-02-10T19:18:45","slug":"uk-dvd-releases-monday-9th-february-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2009\/02\/09\/uk-dvd-releases-monday-9th-february-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"UK DVD Releases: Monday 9th February 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"UK<\/a><\/p>\n

DVD PICKS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Gomorrah<\/a><\/strong> (Optimum): One of the outstanding films of last year was this dark exploration of crime in modern day Italy directed by\u00a0Matteo\u00a0<\/a>Garrone<\/a>.\u00a0The narrative was based on true life stories from\u00a0Roberto Saviano<\/a>\u2019s bestselling book about\u00a0the Comorrah<\/a>, a criminal organisation centred around southern Italy (especially\u00a0Naples<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Caserta<\/a>).<\/p>\n

There is a\u00a013-year-old boy\u00a0(Salvatore Abruzzese) who falls in with a criminal gang; a\u00a0messenger (Gianfelice Imparato) who pays the families of prisoners; a young graduate\u00a0(Carmine Paternoster) who gets involved in toxic waste management; a tailor (Salvatore Cantalupo) who wants to break free of local suppliers and two wannabe gangsters (Marco Macor and Ciro Petrone) who find a stash of weapons and want to act like Scarface.<\/p>\n

It is impeccably cast and the ensemble acting was terrific, but the film also creates a hellishly believable modern landscape far removed from that of mob movies like\u00a0The Godfather<\/a>,\u00a0Goodfellas<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0The Sopranos<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This was a world riddled with poverty, tension and despair where crime infects everyone like a rampant virus. It paints a devastating picture not only of modern Italy, but also how the tentacles of the Comorrah spread out to the wider world.<\/p>\n

The film scooped the\u00a0Grand Prix<\/a>\u00a0at the\u00a0Cannes Film Festival<\/a>, where it deservedly screened to critical acclaim.\u00a0Although at times it was an uncomfortable and brutal film to watch, it remains one of the most powerful and haunting crime films of the last decade.<\/p>\n

It is available on\u00a02-Disc DVD<\/a> and Blu-ray Disc<\/a> and the extras on both include:<\/p>\n