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Italy, France · 2014
1h 43m
Director Francesco Munzi
Starring Marco Leonardi, Peppino Mazzotta, Fabrizio Ferracane, Barbora Bobuľová
Genre Crime, Drama
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Luigi, a former narcotics smuggler now living peaceably in the Calabrian hills, is drawn back into his family’s drug trade dynasty by his impetuous teenage son Leo in a gripping morality tale of violence begetting violence that embarks on a journey into the dark and sinister world of the real-life mafia.
For long stretches, it doesn’t appear to be a genre movie at all, which unfortunately means that certain tropes stick out more conspicuously when they do arrive — a minor flaw that only slightly detracts from the overall quality of the production.
RogerEbert.com by Brian Tallerico
Black Souls isn’t quite the great film the international cinema buzz machine has touted it to be in some circles, but it is a very good one, the kind that ends with such gravity that you feel its weight for a while after.
The Hollywood Reporter by Deborah Young
The story itself avoids the complicated structure of Matteo Garrone’s arty Gomorra, suggesting audiences will have an easier time digesting the tragedy of three brothers. But though it doesn't have Gomorra's comprehension problems, it also lacks that film's iconic cinematic imagery and seems ultimately far less memorable.
Munzi focuses on incongruous leftovers from a benighted past, where kinship and blood feuds in a marginalized corner of rural Italy fester until entire communities are drawn into a whirlpool of intimidation and violence. This is the film’s strong suit.
With its surprising narrative twists and handsome visuals, Black Souls ends up being a far more original take on the Italian organised crime drama than first thought.
The ensemble cast is strong, and the filmmaking supple, but the narrative never quite catches fire.
The Telegraph by Robbie Collin
That strange, conflicted tone of "operatic realism" that the critic and essayist Phillip Lopate found in the films of Luchino Visconti also runs through the core of Munzi’s film: there’s an almost theatrical grandeur to the plot, which was adapted from a novel by Gioacchino Criaco, but moment-to-moment it zings with realism.
The makers of Black Souls, a superior Italian gangster movie, deserve praise for executing with atypical sensitivity a generic times-are-changing/nostalgia-for-an-imaginary-chivalrous-yesteryear scenario.
The New York Times by Stephen Holden
Black Souls is an ominous, well-acted portrait of an ingrown feudal society of violence, retaliation and deadly machismo.
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