This Italian film with English subtitles relies on the contrast between innocent youth and the guilty actions of the members of the Camorra crime syndicate in the region of Campania to make its dramatic point. The insidious organization, supposedly larger than the Cosa Nostra, recruits young people to fill its ranks, which deplete rapidly due to an enormous number of homicides. Two teenaged friends realize that they must become mortal enemies because one of them joined a separatist faction. Two dim-witted young men go from playing Scarface to stealing weapons. A grocery delivery boy uses his position to trick a woman to open her door so she can be killed.
Symbolism is frequent throughout the film. After gunfire erupts on the highway, a car of a rival organization crashes into a cemetery filled with angelic sculptures. The film in a microcosm is symbolized by a wide-angle shot from an apartment complex where children play in a kiddie pool on one level while Camorra members search for someone on the roof.
The film follows different storylines that illustrate different aspects of the Camorra: a designer of counterfeit clothing, the elderly paymaster, a developer dumping toxic waste in a quarry, and more. To a degree, the film lacks both a beginning and an ending but it illustrates tragically how the group constantly pervades life (and death) in Campania. ***½