Dogman

In Rome in 1983, a dog groomer (called ercanaro in the local dialect, translating roughly as "dog sitter") named Pietro De Negri murdered-after many hours of torture-a former boxer named Giancarlo Ricci, who had been terrorizing the neighborhood. For the maker of Gomorrah, this tale serves as a pretext for a story-using the conventions of revenge films-about the mechanisms of violence, about how they break even those who want nothing more than peace and quiet for themselves. Garrone set his dark, evocative film near Naples, in a rain-lashed coastal housing-estate-turned-slum run by the Camorra,and a stoned, aggressive thug named Simone (Edoardo Pesce). Next to Simone, Marcello (Marcello Fonte, a Palme d'Or winner for this role), the owner of a salon for dogs, looks like Woody Allen next to the Hulk. So, it's no wonder that he gives in to every whim of this human Rottweiler: he supplies him with cocaine (he's also addicted) and helps him commit burglaries, all the while patiently suffering his insults. The director sees in Dogman the tragic consequences of this blind, dog-like loyalty, which is the curse of Italy, contributing to the break-up of real social ties, the devastation of the landscape and the disappearance of empathy. And, worst of all, it deprives people of hope.