Published by Maney Publishing (c) The Department of Italian Studies, University of Reading & Department of Italian, University of Cambridge ITALY’S OTHER MAFIAS IN ITALIAN FILM AND TELEVISION: A ROUNDTABLE EDITED BY DANA RENGA AND ALLISON COOPER INTRODUCTION THE BANDA DELLA MAGLIANA, THE CAMORRA, THE ’NDRANGHETA, AND THE SACRA CORONA UNITA: THE MAFIA ONSCREEN BEYOND THE COSA NOSTRA DANA RENGA The Ohio State University, USA With its late spring release in 2008, acclaimed hit Gomorra (Matteo Garrone) 1 secured a stronghold for the Camorra 2 in the international imaginary and provided a visual counterpoint to Roberto Saviano’s eponymous book from 2006 which was already a national bestseller. 3 Indeed, in 2008 the Mafia of Campania was in the media spotlight both in and outside of Italy: newspaper headlines spoke of the rubbish disposal crisis, the Ecomafia, toxic dumping, and the resulting dioxin scare affecting the production of local mozzarella that was exported internationally. Later that year, Campania was again the focus of public attention following the mafia-related attacks on a group of Africans in Castelvolturno and ensuing rioting, events that led to the government’s decision to send 500 troops to the region to help battle organized crime. This was the second time in the last twenty years that the army was enlisted to combat the Mafia; the first was dubbed operazione Vespri siciliani and involved the deployment of 150,000 soldiers to Sicily over a six-year period beginning in 1992 in the wake of the assassinations of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. The Camorra seemed to become, in the words of one reviewer, Italy’s ‘new Mafia’ in that it displaced the Cosa Nostra from public scrutiny. 4 And similar language is used to describe other Italian Mafias: the Sacra Corona Unita of Puglia is described as Italy’s ‘fourth Mafia’, after the Cosa Nostra, the Camorra and the ’Ndrangheta, and the Roman Banda della Magliana is referred to as the ‘fifth Mafia’, 5 while a recent book on the Calabrese ’Ndrangheta labels the organization ‘Italy’s new Mafia’. 6 Historically, Italy’s other Mafias have received less critical attention than the Mafia of Sicily, even though the Camorra predates the Cosa Nostra and the ’Ndrangheta is considered Italy’s most powerful Mafia (although its least visible one until its entrance into the international scene following the Duisburg massacre in 2007 when members of the organization murdered six men The Italianist, 33. 2, 190–200, June 2013 # Italian Studies at the Universities of Cambridge, Leeds and Reading 2013 DOI: 10.1179/0261434013Z.00000000043