[Source: Reuters]

Italian investigators knew a lot of things about mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro – his love for designer clothes, video games, Rolex watches, and his long list of victims.

But they never seemed to know where he was, until his arrest outside a Palermo clinic in January 2023, ending three decades on the run. He died of cancer months later, refusing to spill the beans on his crime empire.

“Sicilian Letters”, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday, looks at a brief period during Denaro’s time as a fugitive in his native Sicily, and asks how much the Italian state really wanted to capture him.

“How has it been possible that a country like ours, which boasts a culture admired by the world … has been unable to oppose a world of such mediocrity and has allowed a man to evade capture for years?” said veteran Italian actor Toni Servillo, who stars in the movie.

Directed by Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, the film draws its inspiration from the “pizzini” – the notes distributed by messengers that Denaro used to keep contact with the outside world as he hid in safe houses.

A heap of his messages were found in 2006 when police caught the-then head of the Sicilian mafia, Bernardo Provenzano.

“His human side emerges from his pizzini,” actor Elio Germano, who plays Denaro, told a news conference.

“We’re simply talking about a human being, capable not only of the worst cruelty but also of sweetness, sensitivity and certain ethics.

This is disturbing because it means that within each of us lies the potential to become such a person,” he said.

Servillo plays a local headmaster who is Denaro’s godfather and is persuaded by police to help locate the mob boss in return for scrubbing away his own judicial woes.

It is a fictional character, but is inspired by an exchange of pizzini between the feared mafiosi and a mayor from his hometown.

“This mayor seemed to quintessentially embody a certain kind of character from Italian comedy,” co-director Grassadonia said.

As the film went into pre-production, news broke of Denaro’s arrest, bringing with it a heap of new information about the man, forcing the team to review their profile of him.

“Fortunately, we realised that the portrait we had developed, not just of him but of the world that recklessly revolved around him, was fairly accurate, so we continued our work,” said Grassadonia.

“Sicilian Letters” is one of 21 movies competing for the prestigious Golden Lion award at the Venice Film Festival, which will be awarded on Sept. 7.