The Sicilian Girl is a 2009 Italian film

Cinema of Italy

The history of Italian cinema began just a few months after the Lumière brothers had patented their Cinematographe, when Pope Leo XIII was filmed for a few seconds in the act of blessing the camera.-Early years:...

 directed by Marco Amenta

Marco Amenta

Marco Amenta is an Italian director, producer and photojournalist.-Biography:After attending the Liceo Classico Umberto I in Palermo, Amenta started his career at Il Giornale di Sicilia as a photojournalist....

. The film is inspired by the story of Rita Atria

Rita Atria

Rita Atria was a witness in a major Mafia investigation in Sicily, breaking the Omertà - code of silence. She committed suicide in July 1992, a week after the Mafia killed the prosecutor Paolo Borsellino, with whom she had been working.-Family background:Atria was born into a Mafia family in...

, a key witness in a major Mafia

Mafia

The Mafia is a criminal syndicate that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century in Sicily, Italy. It is a loose association of criminal groups that share a common organizational structure and code of conduct, and whose common enterprise is protection racketeering...

 investigation in Sicily

Sicily

Sicily is a region of Italy, and is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea. Along with the surrounding minor islands, it constitutes an autonomous region of Italy, the Regione Autonoma Siciliana Sicily has a rich and unique culture, especially with regard to the arts, music, literature,...

.

Plot

Beginning in 1985 in Balata, Sicily, the eleven-year-old Rita Mancuso witnessed the assassination of her beloved father Don Michele by a rival Mafia family. Six years later, her brother is killed by the Mafia as well. Determined to avenge the murders, she decides to break the code of silence

Omertà

Omertà is a popular attitude and code of honour and a common definition is the "code of silence". It is common in areas of southern Italy, such as Sicily, Apulia, Calabria, and Campania, where criminal organizations defined as Mafia such as the Cosa Nostra, 'Ndrangheta, Sacra Corona Unita, and...

 and goes to an anti-Mafia prosecutor in Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

 with her detailed diaries to be used as evidence. Being forced to flee her village, she is put into witness protection

Witness protection

Witness protection is protection of a threatened witness or any person involved in the justice system, including defendants and other clients, before, during and after a trial, usually by police...

 and transferred to a safe house

Safe house

In the jargon of law enforcement and intelligence agencies, a safe house is a secure location, suitable for hiding witnesses, agents or other persons perceived as being in danger...

 in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

.

Reception

For The Sicilian Girl, Amenta received a David di Donatello

David di Donatello

David di Donatello, named after Donatello's David, is a movie award assigned each year for cinematic performances and production by Ente David di Donatello, part of Accademia del Cinema Italiano. It is the Italian equivalent to the Academy Award. There are 24 categories as of 2006.- History :The...

 nomination for Best New Director

David di Donatello for Best New Director

-1980s:*1982**Luciano Manuzzi - Fuori stagione*1983**Francesco Laudadio - Grog*1984**Roberto Russo - Flirt*1985**Luciano De Crescenzo - Così parlò Bellavista*1986**Enrico Montesano - A me mi piace*1987...

. According to a New York Times movie review, the film is hobbled by sluggish direction by Amenta, who previously addressed Atria’s story in his 1997 documentary, One Girl Against the Mafia: Diary of a Sicilian Rebel.

Rita Atria's family have condemned the film; Atria's niece, Vita Maria Atria, said that "I don't believe that any of this helps to commemorate my aunt, but only serves economic ends which I really do not consider appropriate."

Cast

• Veronica D'Agostino as Rita Mancuso
• Miriana Faja as Young Rita
• Francesco Casisa as Vito
• Carmelo Galati as Rita's brother
• Gérard Jugnot
  Gérard Jugnot
  Gérard Jugnot is a French actor, film director, screenwriter and producer.Jugnot was one of the founders of the comedy troupe Le Splendid in the 1970s, along with, among others, his high-school friends Christian Clavier, Thierry Lhermitte, and Michel Blanc...
  
  as Prosecutor
• Marcello Mazzarella as Don Michele
• Mario Pupella as Zio Salvo
• Primo Reggiani as Lorenzo
• Lorenzo Rosone as Young Vito
• Lucia Sardo as Rita's mother