The Immortal

A boat explodes in the bay of Naples and a man comes out of the water alive. Ciro Di Marzio was thought to be dead. From here the film splits in two: the man working with a new organisation in Latvia today, and the baby pulled from the rubble of the 1980 earthquake. The two strands explain how the same person was assembled. The subject is not crime but survival becoming a curse. Ciro comes through every catastrophe and everyone around him dies; the title is not praise but a diagnosis. The form separates the two periods by colour and texture. The Naples of the eighties is hot and crowded; the Riga of today is grey, empty and snowbound. The transitions are unexplained and the events in each strand interpret the other. It is an extension of the Gomorrah series. Marco D'Amore, who played Ciro in the show, moved into directing with this film while continuing in the role. It sits between the fourth and fifth seasons, and for anyone who has not watched the series the weight of the character largely evaporates. Salvatore D'Onofrio and Giuseppe Aiello are in the cast. Who it is for: viewers of Gomorrah and anyone who likes Italian crime cinema. Who it is not for: newcomers; the film introduces nothing and borrows its emotional weight from the show.