Shooting the Mafia

Letizia Battaglia became the first female photographer on an Italian daily newspaper, having only picked up a camera after divorce in her early forties. Battaglia's beat in Palermo brought her into close-up contact with the brutal crimes of the Cosa Nostra and the courage of investigating magistrates like Giovanni Falcone to curb their grip on all aspects of Sicilian society. Yet, in documenting this remarkable life, director Kim Longinotto (Love Is All) keeps making curious choices that diminish the potency of her profile. She uses clips from old Silvana Mangano movies to illustrate Battaglia's struggles with her chauvinist father and husband, and then dips away from her career as a Green Party politician to focus on the infamous Maxi Trial that resulted in 338 individuals being sentenced to 2,665 years in prison. Frustratingly, in reuniting the spirited 84-year-old with some of her old flames, Longinotto allows Battaglia to duck issues like her obviously troubled relationship with her daughters. The film is compelling, but the suspicion gnaws that much else has been overlooked.