On its release, it made sense to compare Lo sgarro to Francesco Rosi’s vibrant debutLa sfida, made four years earlier: the theme is similar (the social corruption of the camorra, the Neapolitan mafia), the context identical (the rural periphery of Naples, far from the sea and still untouched by modernity), and the roles played by several important actors unchanged: Saro Urzi, Nino Vingelli and Ubaldo Granata, all quintessential villains. Above all, director Silvio Siano (already noteworthy for his interesting film about neglected children in the Neapolitan region, Soli per le strade) adopts the same realistic approach in the service of an unforgiving narrative about a place which the cinema of the time usually depicted through the stereotypical images of sun, sea and song. Besides La sfida, the story of a feud within the camorra inspired by events surrounding Pascalone ’e Nola and the young bride-avenger Pupetta Maresca, Siano’s film displays echoes and influences from the cinema of Giuseppe De Santis, who not coincidentally acted as a supervisor on the project. Here, as in Riso amaro and No Peace Under the Olive Tree, the conflict is between oppressors and the oppressed and is set against the historic backdrop of the peasant struggles in Upper Irpinia, which Siano would revisit the following year in La donnaccia. With unusual technical mastery, Lo sgarro borrows from De Santis’ films the atmosphere of a rural western, the insistent rhythm, the pared-back dialogue and the figure of the democratic avenger. The latter role is entrusted to a highly convincing Gerard Blain, playing the young peasant Paolo who, after having succumbed to the tempting business offers of the camorra, ultimately rebels against the cruel boss Don Michele, rediscovering class solidarity and the respect of his honest, elderly father (a masterful Charles Vanel) and the love of Rosaria (Gordana Miletic, a luminous presence). Today, thanks in part to research carried out by the historians Pasquale Gerardo Santella and Savino Carrella and the efforts of Giuseppe Luciano Cuomo of “Quaderni di Cinemasud”, Lo sgarro can be considered a newfound classic by a director ripe for rediscovery.

Paolo Speranza