Koza Nostra, the debut feature-length film from director Giovanni Dota, an Italian-Ukrainian co-production, Pepito Produzioni – Film Ua Production with Rai Cinema, will be released theatrically on 5 May, distributed by Adler Entertainment.
With the ironic and irreverent tones of a gangster comedy, the film narrates the adventures in Sicily of a nosy and caring Ukrainian woman, full of good advice, who ends up housekeeping for a mafia family.
This woman is Vlada Koza who leaves everything in the Carpathian Mountains to arrive unannounced at her daughter’s house in Italy on becoming a grandmother. The girl, however, does not appreciate her mother’s asphyxiating presence and kicks her out, leaving her alone and penniless in the Sicilian hinterland.
An unexpected car accident leads to her becoming the unlikely housekeeper for Don Fredo, boss of the Laganà clan, a dysfunctional criminal family fighting for survival.
At first, Vlada’s unstoppable nosiness – she likes to feel useful, take care of other people, fix things and give advice – appears to bring tangible sense of wellbeing to Villa Laganà… then Vlada finds out the true identity of Don Fredo and his children…
Alongside the lead, Irma Vitovska, the cast includes Giovanni Calcagno, Giuditta Vasile, Lorenzo Scalzo, Gabriele Cicirello, Maurizio Bologna, Adriano Pantaleo, Yuliia Sobol, Jimi Durotoye, Prince Obi, Lorenzo Pompei and Vincenzo Pirrotta.
The film was shot in 2020 in the Carpathian Mountains, Ukraine, Lazio (Rome and Rocca di Papa) and Sicily, in particular in Chiaramonte Gulfi and Sampieri, a seaside hamlet of Scicli (province of Ragusa) and Portopalo (Province of Syracuse). The production was supported by the Ministry of Culture with €200k in selective contributions and tax credit for €1.2M.
(Mo.Sa.)