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It's shocking but true: In central Naples, recent crime activities-extortion, drug-dealing, blood vendettas-have been ruled not by veteran mafiosi but by an ambitious band of teenage boys. That brazen young gang's rise inspired Piranhas, the first novel by Roberto Saviano, author of Gomorrah, the acclaimed nonfiction exposé of Naples's criminal underworld that became an equally celebrated 2008 film by Matteo Garrone.
Now, Piranhas has become a feature film directed by Claudio Giovannesi, scheduled for U.S. release by Music Box Films on August 2. The movie made its world premiere at the 2019 Berlin Film Festival, where Giovannesi, Saviano, and Maurizio Braucci shared the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay. The cast is made up of nonprofessionals, headed by charismatic discovery Francesco di Napoli as the calculating yet naive leader of the scruffy crew. In subtle increments, these boys evolve from wide-eyed strivers looking to make enough money to impress girls and afford bottle service at the local nightclub to amoral hotheads embracing a life of corruption and violence.
We met with Giovannesi the day after Piranhas screened as the opening-night attraction of Film at Lincoln Center's annual Open Roads series of new Italian films. Our thanks to his adept translator, Lilia Pina Blouin.
How did you find your actors?
The casting was the most important part of the film, because we actually saw 4,000 kids in order to select eight. What we were after were three things in particular. On the one hand, we wanted kids that were very familiar with the neighborhood, who had firsthand knowledge of the issues that the film was about. And then we wanted kids with acting talent, because it wasn't about just memorizing lines and spitting them out-they needed to be kids that didn't perceive the presence of the camera. And then we needed innocent faces, because the film is about the loss of innocence. We wanted that to be at the forefront.
I understand they never saw the complete screenplay. Would you give them just the day's scenes?
Yes. Because...