Norman Lewis , author of The Honoured Society, a classic study of the Sicilian Mafia, introduces filmed excerpts from the 600-day trial which became the greatest exposure of organised crime.
In Palermo, between February 1986 and December 1987, over 200 defendants faced testimony from a collection of supergrasses who finally turned against the Mafia and breached omerta, the code of silence. During the court hearings, as life increasingly imitated art (one boss says of a witness '... if he hadn't seen The Godfather he would not have slandered us ...') the secrets of the Mafia emerge: the structure of the Cosa Nostra, its relationship to the US Mafia, the control of the drug trade and the role of the capi - those who have the power of life and death. The story continues.
Music by ENNIO MORRICONE
Directed by PINO PASSALACQUA A RAI CHANNEL 3 production Television presentation by LINDSAY DAVIES
(Francis Coppola 's 'The Godfather Saga ' begins next Friday)
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