Sicilian Letizia Battaglia began a lifelong battle with the Mafia when she first pointed her camera at a brutally slain victim. Documenting the Cosa Nostra's barbaric rule, she bore unflinching witness to their crimes. Her photographs, art, and bravery helped bring an end to a shocking reign of slaughter.... (Full plot summary below)
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Sicilian Letizia Battaglia began a lifelong battle with the Mafia when she first pointed her camera at a brutally slain victim. Documenting the Cosa Nostra's barbaric rule, she bore unflinching witness to their crimes. Her photographs, art, and bravery helped bring an end to a shocking reign of slaughter.
Leave your thoughts about Shooting the Mafia.
| EmpireIan FreerAn affectionate portrait of a remarkable woman that loses its grip when it bites off more than it can chew. |
| The GuardianPeter BradshawHer photographs are like very bad dreams and simply looking for any period of time at dead bodies is a very strange experience. |
| RogerEbert.comNick AllenIn the end, Shooting the Mafia is about recognizing Battaglia as a woman of immense bravery and unflappable individuality. She has seen a great deal of sadness in the world, and captured it in a way that combines art, journalism, and activism. “Shooting the Mafia” aptly conveys Battaglia's many layers, while exemplifying the power in not looking away. |
| Movie NationRoger MooreIt takes guts to take on the mob in a place where its been tolerated for centuries. And sometimes the bravest of those in that fight aren’t in uniform. Some of them are still carrying a Pentax. |
| Film ThreatBradley GibsonThe mafia murder images are stomach turning, viewers take note. Letizia talks about her life at great length and some of it is redundant, but she is always charming and inspirational, living as a strong, independent woman in a crushing patriarchy. |
| Screen DailyAllan HunterBattaglia talks candidly as she picks over the pieces of a life that could easily stretch to more than one film. |
| Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshLonginotto’s film is a rollicking depiction of the wonderfully self-possessed Battaglia. |
| TheWrapSimon AbramsShooting the Mafia is, if nothing else, a decent introduction to Battaglia’s work, even if the rest of Loginotto’s primer doesn’t tell us much about who Battaglia is, or how to appreciate what she does. |
| The PlaylistTed PillowShooting the Mafia is most fascinating when it uses Battaglia’s story, her reminiscences, and her unforgettable photographs, to show rather than tell the painful circumstances of Sicilian life under mob rule. |
| VarietyGuy LodgeNot quite a fleshed-out personal study, nor fully a meditation on what Battaglia’s camera sees, this intriguing but frustrating film finally makes the case for letting the photographer’s pictures tell their story. |
