“The Good Mothers”: the ‘Ndrangheta seen by women

It is available from today – April 5 – on Disney + in full version The Good Mothers, series in six episodes of about an hour each that tells the world of the ‘Ndrangheta from a female perspective. Or rather: it tells that world starting with some women who have tried to rebel against the system, often to try and guarantee their children a different destiny. Based on the best seller of the same name by the English journalist Alex Perry, the series follows the true story of three women – Denise Cosco (daughter of Lea Garofalo who appears in the first episode), Giuseppina Pesce and Maria Concetta Cacciola. The Good Motherswinner of this year’s Berlinale Series Award, thus follows on the one hand the stories of these three women in their own attempt to emancipate from organized crime and on the other hand the work of Anna Colace (Barbara Chichiarelli), Milanese public prosecutor who moved to Calabria and who conducts in-depth investigations into local crime, understanding how a turning point in the unhinging of the system can be found in the ‘Ndrangheta women. On the other hand – in the pilot – the story of Lea Garofalo (Michaela Ramazzotti, painful and always in focus) is told who, after having been a collaborator of justice for many years, goes to Milan to see her husband to let him see her daughter Denise (Gaia Girace).

The misstep is fatal to her and Garofalo will be made to disappear, tortured and killed by her husband Carlo Cosco, leaving her 17-year-old daughter in complete desolation. Denise’s story is joined by that of Giuseppina Pesce (Valentina Bellè), mother of three children who actively participates in the family underworld but, despite this, suffers constant mistreatment and discredit and Maria Concetta Cacciola (Simona Distefano), segregated at home by the men of the family and, as a form of rebellion, motivated to go around in luxurious and flashy clothes. The series is in fact a thriller with great psychological and emotional tension that manages to tell – with unprecedented nuances – a narrative context that has already been widely investigated such as that of the ‘Ndrangheta but restoring great truth and above all pathos. The rendering of the narrative details is significant (for example the small forms of violence and prevarication that Cosco demonstrates in the first episode) and which make the protagonists of this story changing and with a convincing three-dimensionality. The pace is swinging but well managed, the photography livid and muffled. Even the staging helps to give depth to a multifaceted and solid story. The series is directed by Julian Jarrold and Elisa Amoruso (who shoot three episodes each), written by Stephen Butchard and co-produced by the British House Productions Juliette Howell and Tessa Ross together with Mario Gianani and Lorenzo Gangarossa for Wildside. Special mention to Claudia Durastanti who takes care of the Italian adaptation of the screenplay and appears as script editor.

What are the themes of The Good Mothers?

The series explores the theme of emancipation and, more deeply, the search for freedom, for oneself and one’s children. As often happens – first of all in reality – the spring that allows these women to take courage and try to free themselves from a criminal and oppressive system is the presence of their children for whom they wish a different and better future. They are in fact, first of all, good mothers who make sense of the enormous risks they run to try to preserve future generations. Women who sacrifice everything for the pursuit of freedom, often paying a very high price but forcefully affirming what is truly valuable in their lives.

How is The Good Mothers structured?

The series, for each of the first episodes, follows in a particular (but not exclusive) way the story of one of these women, recounting the situations – in part different but with basic similarities – that are found ind face the different roles they cover within the ‘Ndrangheta system and the breaking of the balance that triggers the desire for change (and the opportunity that this change can be translated into practice).

What is the tone of The Good Mothers in three bars?

“Do you understand Denise? (your father) run a red light for love”.
“There’s only one thing: I don’t want to hide anymore”.
“The women of ‘Ndrangheta are the Trojan horses that nobody expects. We take them in first and then we take out all the others.”