Into Paradiso – A Girly Look at the Camorra

I’m dying to ask director Paola Randi why she used the English word “into” in the title of her new movie .”Into Paradiso”, but since then Italians have categorized it as “Controcampo” (against the grain) I guess I don’t have to think so literally. This is her first feature film and all I really need to say is, “Wow!”

It’s the story of Alfonso, a scientist in Naples who gets fired from his job and asks a local politician, Vincenzo Cacace, for a recommendation. He’s initially blown off until Cacace , who’s mixed up with the Camorra, realizes that there’s something in it for him – he sends Vincenzo on a little errand in return for the help we’re really not even sure he’ll give.

Alfonso trusts him and tries to deliver the package, but the recipients are gunned down just as they reach for it and Alfonso flees into a nearby apartment building so that the same thing doesn’t happen to him. Little does he know how his life will change in the world he’s about to discover.The building has become a kind of enclave for immigrants from Sri Lanka – a “Paradiso”, a home away from home that seems far away from the outside streets of Napoli.

A Sri Lanka favorite son, Gayan, an ex-Cricket champion has just arrived in Italy, believing that he’ll find “La Dolce Vita” and is disappointed to find his friends and family doing menial jobs and living not so differently than they did in Sri Lanka. Most importantly, he is having a hard time adjusting to the life of a washed up nobody, and his family doesn’t waste any time telling him to stop feeling sorry for himself and start working.

When Alfonso hides from the Camorra in Gayan’s apartment all hell breaks loose. It’s exciting, it’s funny, and it’s sweet, all at once. Critics here are comparing it to another favorite of mine, ” Mio Cognato”, a movie with Luigi Lo Cascio playing a normal guy (like Alfonso) who finds himself in the middle of the seedy part of town ( in Mio Cognato it’s Bari) but I see a big difference – “Into Paradiso” is girly. And I mean that in a good way.

I loved “Mio Cognato”, and even though there were funny parts, the feeling of menace and danger was always present. “Into Paradiso” made the bad guys seem a little more stupid and ineffectual – and it’s more artistic, with fanciful daydreams, “urban western” music and references, and sentimental relationships. It’s girlier.

I loved it, and I’m very interested in what else Paola Randi has to offer.

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