Damiano Damiani

Cosa Nostra: Franco Nero In Three Mafia Tales By Damiano Damiani

Collection of three crime dramas directed by Damiano Damiani and starring Franco Nero. In 'The Day of the Owl' (1968), when a murder takes place on a nearby highway, police Captain Bellodi (Nero) sets out to investigate the matter. His findings lead him to rumours of corruption surrounding the highway's construction, as well as a suspected affair involving Rosa Nicolosi (Claudia Cardinale), who happens to live near the highway.

Bellodi struggles to get to the bottom of the story, which becomes only more convoluted when witnesses refuse to testify in fear of Mafia retaliation, causing Bellodi to go to extreme lengths to solve the case. In 'The Case Is Closed: Forget It' (1971), Nero stars as Vanzi, an architect who has been imprisoned for his alleged involvement in a hit and run incident, despite his innocence. Vanzi soon learns that the prison system creates a social hierarchy like no other, meaning the wealth and respect he earned before going to prison doesn't get him quite so far on the inside.

Can Vanzi find a way to blend in while he tries to find a way out? Finally, in 'How to Kill a Judge' (1975), Nero stars as film-maker Giacomo Solaris, whose latest work tells the story of a judge who is murdered after befriending the mafia. The film causes controversy and is seized under a judge's authority. However, when this real-life judge is murdered in an all too familiar manner, Solaris realises there may be more to the fictional parallels he portrayed in the plot of his film.