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Suburra: the First Italian TV Series produced by Netflix

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The first Italian Netflix originals TV Series has been proposed during the 74th Venice International Film Festival, an authoritative frame for an equally important presentation: we are talking about Suburra-the series, directed by Michele Placido, Andrea Molaioli and Giuseppe Capotondi, that will be available on the catalogue in all the countries where the service is active from October 6th, 2017.

Suburra Netflix

The genre is crime thriller set in a Rome close to its ruin, where you see how the Church, the State and the organized crime clash between them, confusing the limits of legality and illicit in their fierce pursuit of power, which becomes more ruthless when no longer remains sacred to defend, not even the values of the family. Taken from the homonymous book written by Giancarlo De Cataldo and Carlo Bonino, but set many years earlier than the narration, Suburra-the series proposes a violent and dense story of action, which tells 20 days of general disorders in 10 episodes.
At the centre of the story we find three young men: Number 8 (Alessandro Borghi), Spadino (Giacomo Ferrara) and Lele (Eduardo Valdarnini), different by born, ambitions and passions. They all are destined to grow nearer and nearer to reach their goals. Other characters include: Sara Monaschi (Claudia Gerini), Amedeo Cinaglia (Filippo Nigro), Samurai (Francesco Acquaroli) and Manfredi Anacleti (Adamo Dionisi). The idea of this series, a prequel to the homonymous film, was born from an inspiration of the screenwriters, who wanted to amuse themselves by retelling the characters in a different way, highlighting the purely Roman characteristics, among which there are a thousand-years old hunger for conquest and the survival skills.

Suburra Netflix

Alessandro Borghi in this regard, about his Number 8, said: “I had to disassemble the film’s character. The one in the series is less aware of his power, he wants to find his own place in the world and to do it he gets in contact with other, unknown worlds.”
Claudia Gerini, instead, when asked why she accepted a role so different from the usual ones, replied: “I did it to diversify my career. Sara is a particular character, she is a woman in the Vatican who is fascinated by the promise of a high gain, she is talented, she knows many secrets of the Vatican and is characterized by a hole in the power, just like the other characters “.

Suburra Netflix

On the Netflix production and the new Italian seriality, Michele Placido says: “Since we presented Romanzo Criminale here in Venice, where we have received some criticism for the film, everything has changed. There are new genres, new ways of communicating and a new mindset, more open to the houses of big productions; the directors themselves need these houses and I am pleased to be part of this revolution. About Netflix, in a particular way, I like its being global. “

Suburra Netflix

But the hottest question during the press conference was: does this series propose a mirrored and reliable image of Rome and of the general Italian political situation? The authors of the book answer that, although there are elements of realism, one must not forget that this is a fiction and that it is characterized by the metaphorical and the typical elements of the tale. Also because, as Placido adds: “Politics has a façade while everything else is unconfessable, something that no fiction will ever reach.”
With such premises, are you ready to discover this TV series all about “sex, drugs and… Vatican”?

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