‘Sicilian Letters’ Directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza on Making a Film About Italy’s Last Godfather, a ‘Hyper-Narcissistic Criminal’ Who Read Dostoyevsky
variety.comNick Vivarelli International Correspondent Directorial duo Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza (“Sicilian Ghost Story”) tell the true tale of Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro – who was dubbed “the last godfather” – in their new drama “Sicilian Letters,” launching on Thursday from the Venice Film Festival. “Sicilian Letters” pairs two top Italian actors — Elio Germano, who plays Messina, and Toni Servilloas his antagonist Catello, a shady secret services operative who is trying to catch him — working in tandem for the first time.
The title refers to a surreptitious correspondence between them using “pizzini,” small slips of paper that the Sicilian Mafia used for high-level communications.
The film looks at a time during Denaro’s three decades as a fugitive from Italian justice, when he was at the peak of his nefarious powers.
After being on the run for three decades, Messina Denaro was arrested in mid-January 2023 outside an upscale medical facility in Palermo, where he had been undergoing cancer treatment for a year under a false identity.
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