The Difference Between Justice and Revenge – La Siciliana Ribelle

In La Sicilana Ribelle ( The Sicilian Girl ) Rita Mancuso wants revenge. An unlikely heroine, she was the loving daughter of an old school mafia boss who’d been murdered by rival mafia members. It’s based on the real life story of Rita Atria, whose courageous testimony has put dozens of mafiosi in jail and provoked violence that rocked ( and continues to rock ) all of Italy.

The director, Marco Amenta, told this story previously in the form of a documentary, and this movie in some ways has the feel of one. Though he changed the names and some small details, he remains true to the essence of Rita’s young life. Rita, at 18 years old, left everything she knew to go to Rome to testify against the most powerful Mafia bosses in Sicily. If only as a fact based account of the Mafia, La Siciliana Ribelle would have been worth watching, but there is so much more to it.

This is the story that could have been told by anyone in the world that tries to escape his destiny – something that those of us born into comfortable, law abiding families may have a hard time appreciating. How do you break away from the only life you know? How do you betray your family and friends, put them in danger, and possibly in disgrace? And if you are a woman, isn’t all the more difficult, having been shielded from/imprisoned by male dominated feudalism?

It’s the story of all poor people who live under the thumb of organized crime in a culture of fear, and of the evolution of the mafia from clan leaders who protected the people loyal to them into highly organized criminals that care only about themselves and money.

Most of all it’s about the difference between justice and revenge, as Rita points out in court: they aren’t the same thing. She initially agreed to testify because of a personal vendetta -she’d been raised to hate the police. But she came to realize that revenge wasn’t enough. Revenge doesn’t require truth, but justice does, and so when Rita chooses justice over revenge she has to betray her father and face the fact that he was a criminal too.

This is not just another mafia movie – this is the story of loyalty, honor, courage, and an examination of right and wrong for the real world.

Rita Atria