be set sometime in the past, and portrayed the Mafia as a product of centuries of backwardness and oppression in Sicily, a sort of "collective disease" that can only be cured by the reformation of society. Le conseguenze dell'amore (2004) portrayed a rather ordinary and boring man who works as a money launder for the Mafia in Switzerland, a hero trapped by the "ruthless mechanism of the system". The stockbroker hero, Titta Di Girolamo, is notable for avoiding all human contact for last 8 years of his life, which is revealed half-way through the film to be a punishment by the Mafia after he made a poor investment; if he ever speaks to anyone again, he will be killed. After a chance encounter with a barmaid, Sofia, Girolamo falls in love with her and is killed by the Mafia by being lowered into concrete. Since falling in love leads inexorably to Girolamo's murder, the film suggests the Mafia is the opposite of everything good in humanity and Girolamo's relationship with Sofia is a rebellion against Mafia power. The 2008 Italian mob film Gomorrah was met with much critical acclaim upon its premiere in North America. The film was directed by Matteo Garrone, based on the book by Roberto Saviano that depicts the modern-day of the Casalesi crime family of the southern Italian region of Campania. The film follows five independent plots of people whose lives are influenced by organized crime in Naples and Caserta. Despite failing to represent Italy in the category of Best Foreign Language Film at the 81st Academy Awards, Gomorrah is still regarded as one of the more prominent mafia films from the Italian cinema. Another Italian film from 2008 was Galantomini, which despite its title, which roughly translates "gentlemen", told the story of a female boss in the Sacra Corona Unita in Puglia. The film told very a Romano and Juliet story as it related the relationship between the Sacra Corona Unita boss, Lucia Rizzo and a prosecutor, Ignazio De Raho, who initially set out to imprison her. Through the story in the film is fictional, there is an element of truth in that a number of women who hold leadership positions in the Sacra Corona Unita, very much unlike the Mafia in Sicily. The American scholar Dana Renga argued that the film with its portrayal of Puglia as a lost eden before the founding of