Acknowledgments
Preface

Introduction: An Overview

Mafias

1. Toward a New Language of Engagement for the New Millennium:
Marco Tullio Giordana’s The One Hundred Steps, 2000

2. The Anti-Mafia Martyr Film Takes an Unexpected Turn:
Pierfrancesco Diliberto’s The Mafia Only Kills in the Summer, 2013

3. "This Is Not a Crime Film":
Michele Placido’s Crime Novel, 2005

4. "The Normality of Devastation":
Matteo Garrone’s Gomorrah, 2008

Neo-regionalism

5. "Non per vacanza, ma per viverci!" (Not to Vacation, but to Live Here!):
Giorgio Diritti’s The Wind Blows Round, 2005

6. The Child as the "Custodian of Future Memory":
Giorgio Diritti’s The Man Who Is to Come, 2009

Migrants

7. Channeling the Geographic Unconscious:
Federico Bondi’s Black Sea, 2009

8. "Your Position Please":
Gianfranco Rosi’s Fire at Sea, 2016

Leadership

9. The Ironist and the Auteur:
Paolo Sorrentino’s Il Divo, 2008

10. Liberating the Left: Toward a Humanist Language of Engagement for a Post-Political Age:
Roberto Andò’s Long Live Liberty, 2013

11. The Pontiff and the Shrink:
Nanni Moretti’s We Have a Pope, 2011

Women

12. "It Ended the Way It Should Have":
Francesca Comencini’s The Blank Space, 2008

13. Comic Relief:
Riccardo Milani’s Don’t Stop Me Now, 2019

In a Category unto Itself

14. Hidden Beneath the "Blah Blah Blah":
Paolo Sorrentino’s The Great Beauty, 2013

Bibliography
Index