Black Souls screens in Venice

(ANSA) - Venice, August 29 - Three films screening at the Venice Film Festival on Friday spanned the globe and the range of human experience. From southern Italy with Black Souls, a story about the Calabrian 'Ndrangheta mafia, to Florida and the subprime mortgage crisis in 99 Homes, to northern Europe with In the Basement, a documentary about Austrians and the way they use their basements. In Black Souls, director Francesco Munzi tells the story of three brothers born into a Calabrian mafia family. Youngest sibling Luigi represents the pop-culture image of a mafioso as a hard-charging international drug trafficker.
    The middle brother, Rocco, reflects the interplay between southern and northern Italy, for he moves in Milan, where he goes into business, acquires a socialite wife and preserves his mob ties.
    The oldest of the three, Luciano, has opted to stay behind and tend to the family goats. The contrast between him and his 20-year-old son Leo, who sees his father as a weakling, is a microcosm of the family and regional tensions that exist within the 'Ndrangheta itself.
    Black Souls is one of only three Italian films vying for Venice's Golden Lion, among 20 total contenders for the top prize.
    Also on Friday, 99 Homes by director Ramin Bahrani brings the subprime mortgage crisis to the screen with the stories of families who are given two minutes to vacate their homes when faced with forced evictions for not having kept up with their mortgage payments.
    In the Basement (Im Keller) by Austrian director Ulrich Seidl seeks to render what the director calls "the passion that Austrians have for their basements".