Europe's news in English

COPY LINK

CRIMINAL

Danish gang war spills over into Malmö

A Danish gangster has been remanded into custody on suspicion of blackmail by a Malmö court as police fear that a Copenhagen gang war is spilling over onto the southern Swedish city's streets.

Published: 3 March 2009 11:41 CET

A 22-year-old member of the Denmark-based immigrant motorcycle gang the Black Cobras was remanded into custody by Malmö district court on Tuesday on suspicion of trying to extort 200,000 kronor ($22,000) from a local car retailer.

Two other men are also in custody for the same offence.

Police in Malmö fear that a gang war in the Danish capital of Copenhagen has spilled over into the streets of the city and that the Black Cobras are busy establishing themselves on the Swedish side of the Öresund straight.

According to the car retailer, the three men approached him demanding the money or he would run into trouble. The men are reported to have displayed their Black Cobras logo in order to “shake up” the businessman.

The man refused to pay and instead contacted the police. A trap was set for the trio who, according to the prosecutor, were captured on police video threatening the retailer.

The Black Cobras are sworn enemies of the Hells Angels and are, according to a report in local newspaper Sydsvenskan, one of the largest criminal gangs in Denmark, after the Hells Angels and Bandidos.

A gang war has broken out between rival gangs in Copenhagen recently with arson attacks, shootings and several murders linked to the conflict.

The scale of the Black Cobras’ presence in Sweden is as yet unknown and police confirm that open conflict with the Hells Angels in Sweden has not yet occurred.

“This is in a early phase. We are collecting information on them,” a police source told the newspaper.

Why Italian cinema is starting to glamorize the mafia

'The Traitor', a recent mafia drama that caused controversy in Italy. Photo: Sony Pictures Classics

For almost a century, American filmmakers have glamorized the mafia, depicting their ranks as so charismatic and quick-witted that you might want to invite them over for dinner.

Audiences saw this most recently in 'The Irishman', which reunites a star cast of the usual suspects – Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci – but also in 'The Sopranos' and 'Boardwalk Empire'.

The mafia’s glamorized sheen in America’s collective conscience might be due to the fact that the mafia never attained much power in the US. Compared with Italy, fewer lives have been lost and fewer businesses destroyed by the organized crime syndicate. Today many see the mafia as a relic of the past.

Not so in Italy, where mafias remain as powerful and dangerous as ever.

READ ALSO:

Their menace has been reflected in Italian films and television series, which have long cast mobsters in a negative light.

But as someone who studies media depictions of the mafia, I’ve noticed a shift: Italian films and TV shows have started to glorify criminality, crafting and portraying mafiosos as alluring antiheroes.

In Italy, a break from tradition

It’s long been common practice in Hollywood to cast conventionally attractive actors as sympathetic criminal antiheroes. Humphrey Bogart in 'King of the Underworld', Al Pacino in 'The Godfather' trilogy and Denzel Washington in 'American Gangster' are just a few examples.

However, this practice is a relatively new phenomenon in Italy.

In Italian films from the 1960s and 1970s, Italian gangsters were depicted as shady and charmless.

In the popular Italian mafia biopics of the 1990s and 2000s, which included titles like 'One Hundred Steps' and 'Placido Rizzotto', they appeared as vicious, repulsive villains.

But that started to change in the 21st century. In 2005, director Michele Placido released 'Romanzo Criminale', a film about the Roman mafia that featured a cast of young, attractive mobsters.

More recently, good-looking, sympathetic criminals abound in the TV series 'Gomorrah', while slick, teenaged gangsters populate Claudio Giovannesi’s 2019 film 'Piranhas'.

A controversial portrayal

Marco Bellocchio’s most recent film, 'The Traitor', epitomizes this trend. Released in the US on January 31st, it was also Italy’s submission for Best International Feature Film in the Academy Awards.

At its centre is an ex-mobster named Tommaso Buscetta, played by the attractive Pierfrancesco Favino, sometimes known as “the Italian George Clooney”.

READ ALSO: The Traitor: True story of mafia informant is Italy's entry for the Oscars

The film tells the true story of Buscetta, who shared vital information about the inner workings of the mafia with Italian authorities in the early 1980s. His revelations sparked the “maxi trials”, which ended in 1987 and led to 342 convictions.

Buscetta, however, is viewed with suspicion by many Italians. To this day, his motivations for turning over evidence to the state are cloaked in mystery. In Italy, he’s hardly viewed as an ambassador for the anti-mafia cause. Nonetheless, 'The Traitor' turns him into an alluring antihero.

For these reasons, some Italians weren’t happy about this portrayal. It also didn’t help that the film was released on the anniversary of a mafia rampage that killed an anti-mafia prosecutor, his wife and their bodyguard.

Follow the money

These films and series are popular inside and outside of Italy; 'Gomorrah', for example, is distributed in over 190 countries.

Within Italy, however, protests against these films and series are commonplace. Many Italians are uncomfortable with the way they depict organized crime with characters who are charming and easy to like. Some of the loudest objections come from people who have lost loved ones to the mafia.

For example, the mayor of Naples claimed that 'Gomorrah' corrodes “the brains, minds and hearts of hundreds of young people”, while one judge accused the series’ creators of “excessively humanizing crime”.

READ ALSO:

However, the success of American TV series like 'The Sopranos' conveyed an important lesson to Italian writers and producers: you don’t have to be a good guy to captivate audiences outside of Italy.

So for the last 15 years, Italian film and television producers have become famous by presenting organized crime in ways that are an anathema for many Italians, but find eager viewers around the world.

Dana Renga, Associate Professor of Italian Studies and Film, The Ohio State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Url copied to clipboard!