Writer-director Jonas Carpignano found the subject for his latest film after his car was stolen, said
Nigel Andrews in the FT. Learning that the thieves were Romany criminals from Calabria, he decided
to pay them a visit, and their ensuing conversations inspired this gripping neorealist-style crime drama’s plot. The central character is Pio, a teenage scapegrace played by Pio Amato, a non-professional actor whom Carpignano met among the Romanies. Pio is left to support the family after his father and elder brother (played by Amato’s relatives) are imprisoned, and is soon locked in a spiral of ever-graver criminality. The racial frictions between the Romanies, the local Italian Mafia and African immigrants in the area provide the thematic backdrop for this “fascinating and considered study of outsider tensions”, said Simran Hans in The Observer. It’s only in the violence of the third act that Carpignano hammers home his point too forcefully. The director really “struck gold” with his cast, said Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian. The authenticity of their performances gives The Ciambra a rare “energy and style”.
