REVIEW 079lancing back over the incredible career of
British documentarian Kim Longinotto, one
might generalise that she has, through her
films, shown an abiding interest in the female victims
of male violence. As far back as her meticulous and
patient 1998 film Divorce Iranian Style, and through
work such as 2005’s Sisters in Law, 2008’s Rough
Aunties, 2010’s Pink Saris and 2015’s Dreamcatcher
she has focused on oppressed women who have
chosen to fight their corner. At first, her new
feature Shooting the Mafia seems like something
a bit different for a director who usually prefers a
confessional, journalistic and observational mode.
This time around we have reams of juicy archive
footage, monochrome photography slathered in that
Ken Burns-style slow directional zoom, and only a
small amount of new material.
This is a profile of Letizia Battaglia, a Sicilian
photojournalist who worked throughout the ’70s
and ’80s for the (now defunct) left wing newspaper
L’Ora. Her grisly beat saw her first on the scene for
the various and frequent Mafia slayings in and around
the city of Palermo, and one recurring visual motif of
her photographs is a corpse lying beneath a bloodied
white clothe with blood flowing out in all directions.
While her vocation meant she had to witness macabre
scenes often shielded from public view, an ulterior
motive soon comes to light. She started to document
the grief of family members (often mothers) upon
learning that their son had, say, been clipped in
broad daylight for missing a payment to a loan shark.
The facial expressions she captures mange to be far
more haunting than the butchered bodies.Battaglia’s fight for legitimacy in a male-
dominated professional environment makes for
entertaining viewing, though it’s really the images
themselves that do much of the talking. She is louche
and confident, and just a short time in her company
reveals why she was able to succeed. Like so many of
the women in Longinotto’s previous work, Battaglia
understands that she cannot remain passive while
local crime kingpins murder with impunity, and
so she decides to pivot to activism by setting up
exhibitions of her work which force people to deal
with the glum reality of this situation. Longinotto has
long been an advocate of the idea that we sometimes
need to be confronted by violence to know the best
way to fight it, and with that in mind, Battaglia seems
less like a subject than she is a sister in arms.
The film gradually shifts away from profiling this
pioneering woman in order to tell the more well-
known story of the Italian government’s high-wire
attempts to incarcerate various Mafia bosses. This
includes extraordinary video footage of the so-called
1986 Maxi Trial which took place over six years and
led to the indictment of 475 mafiosi. As a postscript
to all this, various Italian judges working for the
prosecution were killed (along with family members)
by hired goons. This switch to straight Mafia history
certainly makes for compelling viewing, but it’s
almost as if Battaglia has been forgotten, and a male-
focused story takes the limelight. She narrates much
of the tale, but it’s no longer about her. It’s perhaps
the first time Longinotto has profiled a person who
is no longer doing her job, and nostalgia isn’t her
strongest suite. DAVID JENKINSDirected by
KIM LONGINOTTO
Released
29 NOVEMBER
ANTICIPATION.
Kim Longinotto has made many
extremely great films. We are so
down for this one.
ENJOYMENT.
Initially feels like something a
bit different for the director, but
the subject matter is fascinating.
IN RETROSPECT.
The focus veers a little on the
home straight.
Shooting the Mafia
G