FilippoCarcaci

As a Sicilian who was 13 during the World Cup, I find incredible levels of authenticity together with a representation of the places and of the social relationship that resembles more the 50s than the 80s. Nevertheless this film has given me real emotions, and appreciate the effort not to sugarcoat anything. But the story between the boys is so real and intense, and so delicate, didn't really need to have a brutal background to come forward. Maybe it was all like that, but that would have been a bit of an outlier, the place where the facts happened is a tourist destination and a commercial hub. Yet I've given 10 because in some places and at some time every single piece of land, language, dialogue, emotions, behaviour would have been real, and they are all portrayed magnificently.

I am a Sicilian and I also happen to know quite well all the characters represented, apart from Schiro' which is the only fictional one. I am amazed at the way Sicily and the Sicilians are portrayed: so accurate. The dialogues, the accents, the tics, the looks in their eyes are incredibly real. A lot of the actors are not Sicilians yet they manage to capture the essence of the culture of the island. Never during the series does anyone speaks in a less than perfect Sicilian (with a Palermo accent even). The Sicilian dialogues in the Godfather are ridiculous... But apart from this, the series manages to show how it is possible that someone after all so ignorant like Riina becomes so powerful, because he's very smart and clever, and uses his own code of communication in which he's very articulate. The mixture between reality and fiction never comes to the detriment of one or the other, it's a perfectly fine balance. I appreciate that Sicily is not abused in the photography, the background is never too idyllic or too crude. A real masterpiece!