“Sicilian Letters”: Toni Servillo and Elio Germano Correspond in Mafia Drama

A time during Cosa Nostra boss Matteo Messina Denaro’s three decades as a fugitive from Italian justice, when he was at the peak of his nefarious powers

Sicily, 2004.
After many years in prison for Mafia-related crimes, longtime politician Catello has lost everything. When the Italian secret service “convinces” him to help capture Matteo, the last big Mafia boss still on the run, whom Catello has known since childhood, he sees his chance to return.
A cunning man with a hundred masks, a tireless chameleon who turns truth into lies and lies into truth, Catello begins a correspondence with the fugitive, taking advantage of the younger man’s emotional void. A wager that, with one of the world’s most wanted criminals, is always fraught with danger…
Starring Tony Servillo, by the directing duo Antonio Piazza & Fabio Grassadonia (The Mysteries of Sicily, Salvo).

In 2004, Mafia leader Mateo Messina Denaro was the third most wanted fugitive in the world. He was suspected of dozens of murders, as well as the bombings that terrorized Italy in 1992 and 1993. “I’ve killed enough people to fill a cemetery all by myself,” he boasted before fleeing.
In the fall of 2004, a correspondence began between him and a former mayor of his town, who had been persuaded by Italian intelligence to exchange letters with the fugitive. The former mayor used his relationship with Mateo’s father.

Thanks to the correspondence between the fugitive and the former mayor, investigators were able to uncover the network of “couriers” who protected and assisted the godfather while he was in hiding. The correspondence ended in 2006 when an undercover agent revealed to the press that the former mayor was working with the Secret Service.

Mateo was arrested in 2023 at a clinic in Palermo where he had been treated for cancer for two years. He died of the disease eight months after his arrest, taking with him to his grave some of the darkest secrets of recent Italian history.

“The initial idea for this film came from reading the numerous pizzini (notes in code) written by the mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro during his long stint in hiding. The boss was able to run his clandestine life and business through these unusual letters. The notes, however, transcended the practical function of criminal communication and allowed aspects of his personality and the nature of the tragic and ridiculous world that swirled recklessly around him to emerge. Drawing free inspiration from these pizzini, Iddu recounts the correspondence between Matteo, a reluctant prince of a senseless world, and Catello, a grotesque mask of sunny amorality. With Matteo and Catello, we immerse ourselves in the void in which an entire people wallows as if in a great sea kissed by the sun and the Gods.” the directors stated.