In
Naples in 2004, some gangsters are relaxing in a tanning salon. An assassination occurs between clans of the
Di Lauro Camorra syndicate which rule
Scampia–
Secondigliano, and triggers the
Scampia feud, between members of the Di Lauro syndicate and the so-called
scissionisti (secessionists), who are led by
Raffaele Amato, brother of two of the men killed in the opening scene. The film intertwines five separate stories of people whose lives are touched by
organized crime against the backdrop of the ongoing feud.
Don CiroDon Ciro is a timid middleman who distributes money to the families of imprisoned Di Lauro clan members. After the feud develops within the clan, he is ambushed by a pair of angry secessionists during a delivery. Fearing for his life, he later offers to defect to their side. They refuse his offer, and tell Ciro that he has to "pay" for his life by selling some of his former associates. He leads them to the location where he is given the money for distribution. The pair raid the place, killing everyone but Ciro, and take most of the money, leaving some cash on the table for Ciro. Ciro, spattered with blood, walks off past several bodies to an uncertain future.
TotòTotò is a 13-year-old grocery delivery boy who witnesses some drug dealers abandon a bag of drugs and a gun while evading the police in the
Vele of
Scampia. He returns the items to the gang, and asks to join. His initiation in a
cavern consists of him being shot while wearing a
bulletproof vest as a test of courage. As the feud intensifies, families in the neighborhood whose loyalties are suspect are ordered to move out or suffer violence; Totò's fellow gang members receive similar threats. Later, while hanging out with his gang in the streets of Scampia, one of his gang is killed in a drive-by shooting. The gang members decide to stand their ground and exact violent retribution by selecting a woman, Maria, as their next victim, as her son has joined a clan of
Secondigliano secessionists. Totò, who has delivered groceries to Maria, is forced to lure her out of her apartment, where his comrades kill her.
RobertoRoberto is a graduate who works in waste management. His boss, Franco, provides a low-cost
toxic waste disposal service that allows northern industrialists to dispose of materials like
chromium and
asbestos in the
countryside of southern Italy. Franco and Roberto orchestrate the illegal disposal of the waste at abandoned quarries and other environmentally-sensitive sites. During one such operation, a drum of toxic chemicals is accidentally spilled on a driver. Franco refuses to call an ambulance, and hires children to drive the trucks when the workers refuse to continue their work. Later, Franco and Roberto meet a family of farmers who, desperate to extinguish their debts, decide to allow the burial of chemical substances in their countryside. An elderly farmer gifts Roberto a basket of peaches, but Franco later tells him to throw them away because they are contaminated. Roberto then decides to quit his job and tells Franco he cannot bring himself to poison the earth, to which Franco says that he should not think he is the better man, because thanks to men like them Italy was able to join the European Union by solving problems others had caused, and allowed people to repay their debts. Roberto walks alone on a desolate countryside road.
PasqualePasquale is an
haute couture tailor who works for Iavarone, a garment factory owner with ties to the Camorra. Pasquale takes a night-job training Chinese garment workers. As they are competing with Camorra-controlled firms, the Chinese drive him to and from work in the trunk of their car. His secret work is discovered, and his Chinese associates are killed in a drive-by shooting. He survives the attack, but resigns his job. Later, working as a truck driver, he is in a transport café where he spots
Scarlett Johansson on TV wearing one of his dresses. He smiles wryly as he drives away.
Marco and CiroMarco and Ciro are two young wannabe-gangsters who try to operate their own small racket independently of the local clan. Impressed by mafia portrayals from Hollywood movies, they quote lines and spontaneously reenact scenes from
Scarface in
Walter Schiavone's villa while dropping references to
Tony Montana, Miami, and
Colombian drug cartels. Their first score is robbing African immigrants during a drug purchase at the Hotel Boomerang,
Castel Volturno. The word of the incident gets to the local mob chieftain, who summons them and warns them under threat of violence not to repeat such behavior in the future. Ignoring him completely, they spy Camorra gangsters hiding a stash of weapons. They steal the weapons and amuse themselves by firing off rounds by the banks of a
Regi Lagni canal
estuary in the
marshland. Once they run out of money, they use their guns to rob a
video arcade, and spend their stolen funds at a strip club. The gangsters, angered, find them and threaten to kill them if they do not return the weapons within a day. The pair prove stubborn. Zio Vittorio, one of the local gangsters, approaches them in a bar with an offer to work for him. He offers them €10,000 if they return the weapons and murder Peppe 'O Cavallaro. They accept the
contract, which turns out to be a trap: they are ambushed and killed by Giovanni, Bernardino, Vittorio and others at the location of their supposed target, an abandoned beach resort next to Regi Lagni canal estuary. The last scene shows their dead bodies being carried away by a front end loader. == Cast ==