Veronica is a teenage girl that has done something to upset the local "Camorra" mafia. Mimmo, a teenage boy who sells ices (slush) on the streets, has been given the task to watch over her until the local boss of the area, Bernado, has time to come along and take care of the problem. Mimmo is unwilling, but compelled to cooperate in his task, while Veronica is flippant and understandably not co-operative. The scene is some deserted warehouse near Naples where the two develop a bond and mutual respect for each other's undesirable position despite the circumstances, both being caught up in the wrongdoings of daily mafia life. The film progresses at a gentle pace, and both characters are likable and inevitably they come to an understanding. Despite the slow pace, for me the film works on several levels. It successfully conveys that feeling of dread, evil, ignorance and misogyny that exists in the all-pervasive Italian mafia life, that feeling of helplessness, of having to accept that this is how things are, without reason but just because it is – the total abuse of power. Great acting from the two protagonists who apparently are debutants on the silver screen, and also by the mafia thugs who remind me of the occasional unsavory types I have come across while living in this great, but severely flawed country, that is Italy.
Review of The Interval
