Gorbaciof
Stefano Incerti's impressive (...) Gorbaciof unites Toni Servillo's bravura talent and lenser Pasquale Mari's superb camerawork in service to the helmer's personal best. Set in an insular Neapolitan world suffused with a heady sense of isolation, the pic owes its name to the titular protag, a prison cashier with a penchant for high-stakes gambling whose large birthmark earns him the nickname of the former Soviet leader.
(...) Gorbaciof's major indulgence is gambling: off hours he's in the back of a Chinese restaurant, playing poker with a powerful, corrupt lawyer and the restaurant owner. Gorbaciof develops another addiction at the eatery: the proprietor's attractive daughter Lila, though she can't communicate in Italian. When her father loses a hefty chunk of change, Gorbaciof comes to the rescue, "borrowing" money from the prison cashbox; morally, this isn't such a big deal for him, though it sets him on a slippery path.
(...) Servillo builds his character starting from Gorbaciof's walk, imbuing the role with an attention-grabbing originality that inhabits a world only playing on the edge of reality, like a bizarre figure in a Neapolitan version of an Edward Hopper painting.
Jay Weissberg, Variety
Duration: 85 min
Dialogue: Italian
Subtitles: English
Age limit: K15
