Infinite shifts. Hunger. Beatings of the masters. For Collezolfo miners, life is ruthless. Among them there is Enzo Favaracalled by everyone u carusuas a child accustomed to digging among the underground tunnels of the mine managed by the Spadaro family. It dreams of America, that place beyond the Atlantic Ocean described by everyone as a land of dreams and freedoms. But fate has other plans in store: after yet another abuse by the master, Enzo is forced to leave the mine. Will find protection in the figure of Don Torrisian esteemed man who manages a flourishing vineyard, rival of the Spadaro.
It is from this incipit full of pathos that Enzo’s criminal climb begins in Mafia: Mother landthe new video game on organized crime developed by the US team Hangar13 and Posted by 2K. In support of development, also an Italian study based in Sicily, in Acireale: Stormind Gamesknown for Batora: Lost Haven and Quiet Place: The Road Ahead. The setting in this case is not the Chicago of the 1930s of the first mafia, nor the New York of the 1950s of the second chapter and not even the 1968 New Orleans of Mafia III. The new motherland begins its story where it all started: Sicily of the early twentieth century, a true protagonist of the experience.
Be criminal between needs and destiny
Enzo is not mafia by choice, but out of necessity. In truth it is not even aware of being at the beginning. Moreover, the term mafia is never used in the game. Don Torrisi speaks of “Cosa Nostra” to refer to the affairs of his vineyard between western Sicily and the United States. In this context, u carusu He finds himself facing a series of evidence for gratitude towards Torrisi (and for the love of his daughter Isabella). These tests translate into races with horses for the honor of Don, fight against the brigands of the countryside, but also the collection of lace, threats to workers on strike and duels with the white weapon.
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Mafia: Mother land | The gameplay phases are quite essential.
A crescendo that triggers a moral dilemma in the heart of Enzogiving rise to a story with a strong film cut, typical of the production of the Mafia franchise, but even more than Hollywood cinema. “The system of Old Media is what most influences i new media: the videogame reality has the cinema as reference, “he explains Marcello Ravvedia, professor of Digital Public History at the Universities of Salerno and Modena and Reggio Emiliato Fanpage.it. “It is as if the player was entering a typical film script MAFIA MOVIESwhere, however, it has a central role here “.
The reference is to the typical interaction of the video game, which allows you to take advantage of an active experience compared to cinema, books and TV series. We fully live the criminal ascent of Enzo, starting from the choice of clothing and the machine, up to the actual sections of gameplay, which are divided into shootings, stealth phases, racing in the car or horse and duels with the knives. A truly linear and simple gameplaywhich seems almost the filler of a story extremely rich in solemnity, thanks also to a really memorable cast of characters.
Sicily in the mafia: land mother
As it is typical in the series, in the mafia the locations are always fictitious, even if it is easy to recognize its inspirations. In the case of land, the reference area is western Sicily, with Palermo present at the appeal, however there is no shortage of elements that recall other areas of the island. There is “A ‘Muntagna”, with reference to Etna, which in reality is located on the eastern side, just as there are Greek ruins inspired by the Valley of the Temples of Agrigento. A mix that does not reflect the geographical authenticity to enhance the aesthetic authenticity: The Sicily of the game is archaic, rural, passionate, lush.
Mafia: Mother land | The main setting remains the campaign around the vigor of Don Torrisi, even if there is no lack of raids in the fictitious village of San Celeste.
“Certainly the setting also serves to determine a condition of tourist imagination. Sicily is a piece of the imaginary world of America, especially in some elements,” says Ribveduto. “Palermo and the Golden Conca have had a weight both as regards migrants and for the export of local products to the United States”. In fact, Don Torrisi’s business grows massively with the export of his wine to America.
“We then find Etna as a symbolic element of a passionate, magmatic world, while Agrigento is certainly linked to a classical dimension, therefore to the idea of Sicily as an ancient place, consequently also authentic”. Playing the mafia: land mother The contrast between the Sicilian campaign and the US metropolis of the previous chapters is evidentcome to reiterate the millennial, archaic nature of Sicily: Next to the first motor machines there are carts, women with jars and brigands with lupara.
“The question of the primitive is linked to roots of authenticity of a world that resists the pressure of modernity. In reality We know how modern the mafia was and how much the richest markets took advantage of of Sicily “, explains Ribveduto.” This question is obviously linked to the idea of of ancient worlds that arrived in the United States with the immigration processes of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. A vision that is also linked to the very roots of America: it is no coincidence that the action phases of the game, such as gallops on horseback, refer to the American Far West “.
For Ravvedito it is not a randomness. “The western genre influenced the narration of the mafias. The first mafia films in Italy were debtors to Western cinematography: for example, let’s think about the films of the 1950s Pietro Germi. A flu that refers to the myth of the origins “.
Mafia: Mother land | Western and Sicilian aesthetics come together very suggestive.
This stylistic, representative and aesthetic care of great value that of the mafia: land mother, evident also in the after -date: among the languages available there is no Italian but directly the Sicilianand even more specificly the Palermo (modern, not of the time). A choice that proves to be functional for a powerful immersion within atmospheres so far away over time, but firmly firm in the collective imagination linked to Sicily (and the mafia).
Pop mafia
Despite the great attention in telling a story of the mafia, it should be noted that we still speak of a videogame production with commercial intent, consequently it is impossible to find a complex and rigorous treatment of the mafia phenomenon in Sicily. The risk is that of A romanticization of the figure of the mafia gangster – now the double -firing that binds uses to the Italian one – and criminal dynamics is now evident. An evident simplification in the post that Hangar13 published the launch day of the mafia: land mother, in which the study thanks the community by writing “Thank you, mafia!“, To refer to fans of the franchise.
“This thanks is part of a process of poppization Of the mafia, but it also tells us another thing: in the United States, the term mafia also indicates someone who is able to influence market segments, or more generally to influence the world around it. From this point of view, the ‘Thank you, mafia!’ It is so much an identification of the gamer inside a community, as the idea of these players who become actors able to influence the videogame market “.
Ultimately, Mafia: Terra Madre is a work that fascinates for the cinematographic breath, aesthetic care and the ability to bring us back to the origins of a now globalized criminal myth. But, like any product of mass entertainment, he lives in the contradiction between denunciation and fascination, between historical memory and pop legend. And perhaps it is right there, in that unstable balance, that his Sicily becomes immortal.
