BREAKING THE MAFIA CODE
SCRIPT
00:00:02
(Breaking the Mafia Code)
00:00:14
(Partinico, Sicily, Italy)
00:00:28
NARRATOR: Every morning Pino Maniaci, journalist and owner of TV station Telejato, is escorted by the police from his home to the local coffee bar.
Since 2008 this has been his daily routine. In July of that year, he had been attacked by a member of the Mafia. Pino Maniaci gathers with his family and talks over the schedule for the day. Every day Telejato broadcasts a two-hour-long news show on the corruption and intimidation in the local community and the neighbouring villages. Two hours of naming and shaming.
00:01:08
NARRATOR: Partinico is a small town in the heart of Mafia territory. This is the base of Telejato.
00:01:19
PINO MANIACI: Where are you?
00:01:21
Come to the municipality, hurry.
00:01:25
Giovanni…
00:01:34
NARRATOR: Telejato Notizie is produced by Pino Maniaci, his wife and three children. His son Giovanni does the technical support, and his daughter Letizia is the reporter. Together with a team of volunteers they make the daily broadcast possible, every day at two in the afternoon.
00:02:04
NARRATOR: Two larger-than-life portraits hang from the wall: Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, the two magistrates who died in 1992 in attacks orchestrated by the Mafia.
(Pino Maniaci, director Telejato)
PINO MANIACI:
00:02:15 Falcone and Borsellino are two Sicilian heroes, known in the whole world.
00:02:22 They are two judges who sacrificed their lives
00:02:25 trying to free this land from the cancer of the Mafia
00:02:30 and they have brought hundreds of Mafiosi to prison
00:02:35 who were eventually found guilty.
00:02’40 They have been killed precisely because
00:02:43 they dared to investigate the third level
00:02:50 that of the connection between the Mafia and politics.
00:02:55 And this is obviously a very dangerous level.
00:03:13 This land is the land of paradoxes, the land of the beautiful architecture, the sun and the sea,
00:03:19 but it’s also the land of the Mafia.
00:03:30 This endeavour is driven by the wish to tell the story of a land,
00:03:36 the wish to make a news programme to tell the story of the villages reached by Telejato,
00:03:43 such as Corleone, Partinico, Borgetto, Cinisi.
00:03:49 We started to work, with a straight back,
00:03:55 which is what Italian journalists should do but unfortunately don’t do,
00:03:59 in this large territory which Telejato reaches,
00:04:04 and we started to tell what is happening here: the Mafia abuses, the pollution, people’s despair.
00:04:10 This was the beginning of the adventure.
00:04:13 In this beautiful and cursed land, as I call it,
00:4:19 normality is not normal.
PINO MANIACI:
00:04:25 In the past days we have been talking about the pressure
00:4:29 exercised by the Mafia on local shopkeepers.
00:4:34 We see these local Mafiosi
00:4:38 who brag in the squares
00:4:42 with a pompous attitude,
00:4:45 and continue to threaten people.
00:4:47 They can often be found in certain coffee bars,
00:4:51 near construction sites,
00:4:54 and collect the protection money
00:4:57 or send their affiliates.
PINO MANIACI:
00:05:01 Pino Maniaci becomes a problem for the Mafia as soon as he picks up a microphone,
00:5:06 because he starts to denounce whatever needs to be denounced.
00:5:10 Pino Maniaci has an instrument
00:5:14 which allows him to start a battle,
00:5:18 and so we started one on all fronts.
00:05:22
NARRATOR: This morning, Maniaci has a meeting with a group of entrepreneurs and shopkeepers who have organised themselves into the anti-pizzo movement. They no longer want to pay the extorsion money to Cosa Nostra. The anti-pizzo movement is growing, and now more and more people have dared to stand up against the Mafia.
(Francesco Billeci chairman anti-racket association Liberjato)
FRANCESCO BILLECI:
00:05:40 The anti-racket association has been set up by local entrepreneurs
00:5:47 from Borgetto, Partinico and neighbouring villages.
00:5:49 Its objective is to oppose the Mafia,
00:5:53 and to say no to paying the pizzo and any other form of organised crime.
(Giovanni Amato, entrepreneur)
GIOVANNI AMATO:
00:06:01 When the Mafia asked me to pay the pizzo, I was really scared.
00:6:05 I didn’t sleep for two nights because I was worried.
00:6:12 But then I said to myself: No, I won’t pay the pizzo.
00:6:16 Then they started attacking me.
00:6:19 They burned my car and the door of my house.
CHILD TV-SPOT:
00:06:22 Hey, I am talking to you. You, who’s watching this video.
00:6:25 As usual, you turn a blind eye.
00:6:27 You turn your head and look the other way.
6:30 You turn a blind eye when they fire my mum
00:6:31 because she is pregnant.
00:6:33 And you turn a blind eye as they burn my dad’s shop
00:6:35 because he hasn’t paid the pizzo.
00:6:37 The pizzo doesn’t exist, right?
FRANCESCO BILLECI:
00:06:39 At the beginning we were very few, three or five.
00:6:42 Then people started talking about this in the area,
00:6:45 and some entrepreneurs came looking for us,
00:6:48 and so from five we became ten.
GIOVANNI AMATO:
00:06:52 If you pay the pizzo you will be fine,
00:6:55 and you’ll sleep quietly.
00:6:58 But if you wake up one day and decide not to pay,
00:7:04 they will start sending you intimidating letters and attacking you.
00:7:10 At some point you say: No more.
00:7:13 But that takes courage.
CHILD TV-SPOT:
00:07:15 You will continue to turn a blind eye.
00:7:17 You talk to people who turn a blind eye.
00:7:19 You listen to politicians who turn a blind eye.
00:7:22 You read newspapers that turn a blind eye.
00:7:24 You watch TV programmes that turn a blind eye.
00:7:26 All this doesn’t exist in Italy, right?
00:7:29 The Mafia doesn’t exist, right?
00:7:31 Hey. I’m talking to you. You who keep turning a blind eye.
00:7:34 It is also your fault if my future stops when I’m only eight years old.
00:07:39
(Our cause. Stop turning a blind eye.)
00:07:43
NARRATOR: Today a soccer tournament is organised by Liberjato, the anti-pizzo organisation. Together with teams consisting of policemen and members of the Ministry of Justice, they want to raise awareness for the entrepreneurs who dared to withstand the Mafia by not paying the pizzo.
00:08:01
CHILDREN: Forza Pino! Forza Pino! Forza Pino! …
00:08:22
NARRATOR: The supporters are children who follow special projects at school on the Mafia and its influence in local society.
00:08:29
CHILDREN: Pino! Pino! Pino! Pino! Pino! …
00:08:39
UNKNOWN SPEAKER: Welcome to the national project Sport and Legality,
00:8:43 with the participation of Liberjato and Telejato.
00:08:58
NARRATOR: The mayor of Partinico, Salvo Lo Biundo, joins the team of Liberjato. He explains the importance of the event.
(Salvo Lo Biundo mayor of Partinico)
SALVO LO BIUNDO:
00:09:05 This day is important, because it’s a way to stay together,
00:9:10 to commemorate Falcone and Borsellino.
00:9:14 This is a socialising moment with the school children,
00:9:19 in order to convey the message that legality is essential.
00:9:23 We have to continue on this path.
00:9:26 This is a way to stay together and to strongly oppose the Mafia.
00:09:48
NARRATOR: Manfredi Borsellino, son of judge Paolo Borsellino, is also present at the tournament.
(Manfredi Borsellino, son of Paolo Borsellino)
MANFREDI BORSELLINO:
00:09:54 This whole area needs the constant presence
00:10:01 of independent journalists
00:10:04 like Pino Maniaci and his TV station.
00:10:08 All of us owe a lot to his work.
00:10:13 It is well known that, often, Telejato was the first to denounce
00:10:21 strong Mafia influence in some entrepreneurial activities around here.
PINO MANIACI:
00:10:30 Irony is what makes them angry.
00:10:34 Irony is also what helps me to fight the fear.
00:10:38 Irony also serves to denigrate them,
00:10:43 to make them appear like they themselves would say
00:10:47 as ‘nothing mixed with nothing’.
00:10:50 Paying the pizzo, protection money, means
00:10:53 keeping alive the Mafiosi.
00:10:57 These people worth nothing who go around the streets of
00:11:00 our town with their big cars
00:11:04 and who do nothing all day long.
00:11:08 Obviously, we continue to say: Do not pay the pizzo.
00:11:12 Go to the police and denounce them instead.
00:11:17 Many people come to us to denounce crimes.
00:11:21 And then we obviously refer them to police for the investigations.
00:11:25 So they know that we keep an eye on them.
00:11:29 Today, thanks to the police operations,
00:11:35 there is no emerging Mafia leader in the territory of Partinico.
00:11:39 There are only a couple of bumpkins.
00:11:43
NARRATOR: But what in fact is the Mafia, this complex organisation that has been a part of Sicilian life for so long? And how has it evolved in recent years?
(Don Salvia priest)
DON SALVIA:
00:11:53 Until a few years ago the Mafia was everything.
00:11:58 It was politics, oppression, power…
00:12:01 it was everything, and it controlled everything.
00:12:04 The blood of Falcone and Borsellino has produced
00:12:07 a new way of thinking, a new culture.
00:12:10 The old Mafia controlled everything, and,
00:12:15 while remaining hidden, displayed a fake respectability.
00:12:21 Today, this Mafia has almost disappeared.
(Manfredi Borsellino son of Paolo Borsellino)
MANFREDI BORSELLINO:
00:12:23 The Mafia is chameleonic.
00:12:26 My father used to say that the essence of Cosa Nostra
00:12:30 is its ability to penetrate inside institutions.
00:12:36 Unfortunately
00:12:37 in Sicily even your neighbour can be a Mafioso.
PASSER-BY 1:
00:12:41 I’m not interested in Telejato.
00:12:45 What are we talking about?
00:12:48 What Mafia, Mafia, Mafia…
00:12:50 I don’t see any Mafia around
00:12:53 The Mafia doesn’t exist.
00:12:59
NARRATOR: So how do you fight this invisible enemy, and where does Maniaci get his motivation for fighting the Mafia and being a voice of the people?
(Pino Maniaci, director Telejato)
PINO MANIACI:
00:13:14 Pino Maniaci was born as a student. My father wanted me to continue my studies.
00:13:19 I reached the fourth year of my medicine degree, but eventually I never graduated,
00:13:23 because I got lost along the way.
00:13:27 Then I had a very short experience with a construction company,
00:13:32 but it wasn’t really my thing.
00:13:35 In 1999, I had the chance to buy Telejato, which was
00:13:39 about to shut down because it was broke.
00:13:43 I had always had a passion for television,
00:13:50 and this gave me the the practical instrument to realise my dream:
00:13:58 telling the story of a territory, with all its problems.
(Giovanni Pantaleo politician)
GIOVANNI PANTALEO:
00:14:04 I watch it because it is the voice of the citizens,
00:14:08 the voice of the community, our voice.
00:14:11 It is no coincidence that in the morning, in the squares,
00:14:18 in the coffee bars, and in the workplaces,
00:14:21 people always discuss what Pino Maniaci said the day before:
00:14:25 Is this news true or not?
00:14:27 How could he report on this before anyone else?
00:14:29 How does he manage to know everything, even if it has only
00:14:32 been discussed secretly by three or four people?
00:14:34 Does he have hidden microphones? Does he have bugs?
00:14:37 Does he have a satellite intelligence system?
00:14:41 He always manages to know everything before anyone else.
CHILDREN:
00:14:44 Pino Maniaci, you have ruined this town.
NARRATOR:
00:14:50 Pino Maniaci receives his threats in a variety of ways. This graffiti in Partinico being just one example of such a threat.
INTERVIEWER:
00:14:57 What does it mean?
00:14:58 And why did they write it?
CHILD 1:
00:15:00 I have no idea.
PASSER-BY:
00:15:02 I don’t know, maybe there are people who hate Pino.
INTERVIEWER:
00:15:06 And why do they hate him?
PASSER-BY:
00:15:07 Maybe because he tells the truth.
(Telejato July 17th 2008)
REPORTER’S VOICE:
00:15:11 New attack of intimidation from the Mafia
00:15:15 against TV station Telejato.
00:15:17 One of Telejato’s cars, which was parked
00:15:19 in front of the TV station, was burned.
00:15:22 Pino Maniaci: We won’t allow them to scare us.
00:15:25 We’ll continue to do our job, to bring independent information
00:15:28 to this territory.
PINO MANIACI:
00:15:30 And so we understood we were on the right track,
00:15:34 because by telling the story of this territory as it really is,
00:15:37 we received the first intimidations, with slashed tires,
00:15:40 broken windows and burned cars.
(Giovanni Maniaci)
(Telejato July 17th 2008)
GIOVANNI MANIACI:
00:15:44 Sometimes there have been low moments for our family.
00:15:48 Giving up has crossed our minds as the right thing to do.
00:15:56 But those are only moments.
00:16:00 Because then you realise that it’s not like that.
00:16:02 The right thing to do is to continue preventing them from winning.
PINO MANIACI:
00:16:06 In 2008 I had a fight with the son of a Mafia boss,
00:16:10 simply because we managed to get demolished
00:16:14 five big illegal stables, which were his father’s property.
00:16:19 His father was Vito Vitale, a famous Mafia boss condemned
00:16:23 several times to life imprisonment for murders
00:16:26 that were committed in this area.
(Telejato May 2008)
PINO MANIACI:
00:16:30 Here we are, in front of the stables of shame.
00:16:34 After a long process they are finally being demolished.
00:16:39 What constituted a monument to illegality today leaves
00:16:43 space to redemption for the town of Partinico.
00:16:50 After demolishing these stables, a symbol of the Mafia power
00:16:54 and the abuses on this territory,
00:16:59 built in an ancient village of the 16th century,
00:17:03 completely devastated by these Mafiosi.
00:17:05 On the same day, the son was looking for me around town
00:17:09 in order to take revenge.
00:17:12 We finally met on a secondary road near the main street.
00:17:17 It was almost dark.
00:17:21 He blocked me in the car, beat me over and over,
00:17:25 and tried to strangle me with my own tie.
00:17:28 He didn’t manage only because I always make the double necktie.
INTERVIEWER:
00:17:31 Pino, is it true that you can make a necktie tie that no one else can make?
PINO MANIACI:
00:17:35 No, it’s not true that no one else can make it.
17:37 I make the double necktie as many others do.
INTERVIEWER:
00:17:39 Is it special?
PINO MANIACI:
00:17:40 It is special because it comes out nice and straight…
VOLUNTEER TELEJATO:
0017:44 And it’s a strangling-saviour.
PINO MANIACI: Yes, it’s a strangling-saviour.
INTERVIEWER:
00:17:47 Was it ever useful?
PINO MANIACI:
00:17:48 Well, the double necktie saves your life.
00:17:55 If it’s not a noose, it is useful when a son of a Mafia boss wants to
00:17:59 strangle you with your own tie.
00:18:01 He got fucked in the ass.
VOLUNTEER TELEJATO:
00:18:03 He was left with only the tie in his hands.
(Telejato July 18th 2008)
PINO MANIACI:
00:18:05 Welcome to today’s edition of Telejato Notizie.
00:18:09 Despite the kicks, the punches and the aggression,
00:18:13 as you can see, Pino Maniaci does not give up.
00:18:16 We are going on the air despite the black eye and bruises.
PINO MANIACI:
00:18:18 And from that moment I was put under police protection,
00:18:24 and many other things.
00:18:27 Our statement was very simple: you didn’t change anything.
00:18:31 I went on air even with a black eye.
00:18:33 If you really want to stop us you must have the courage
00:18:36 to look straight in our eyes and shoot us,
00:18:39 otherwise we’ll keep going.
00:18:42 And we kept going. They continued with their intimidations,
00:18:45 with the burned cars, the slashed tires, the broken windows.
00:18:50 But we didn’t stop, and we won’t stop.
(Salvo Lo Biundo mayor of Partinico)
SALVO LO BIUNDO:
00:18:53 The Mafia is always strong, but it isn’t
00:18:56 as organised as it used to be.
00:18:59 They don’t move in a pre-set order,
00:19:01 because they have weakened, thanks to the judges,
00:19:08 the police, and the entrepreneurs who denounce them.
00:19:12 They are a bit lost, they don’t have the time
00:19:15 to reorganise themselves.
00:19:17 This is the right moment to continue our fight against them.
NARRATOR:
00:20:06 At first sight the anti-Mafia sentiment seems to be the dominant feeling in the people of Partinico. But is this really true? When we visit a family at their home, we hear a different story about Pino Maniaci.
(Pellerito family)
PELLERITO FATHER:
00:20:19 Pino calls everyone pieces of shit. But that’s unfair.
00:20:25 First, whether people are Mafiosi, as he says, or not,
00:20:30 has to be proven true.
00:20:31 But as soon as someone is arrested for being in the Mafia,
00:20:35 the first thing Pino says is piece of shit.
00:20:38 He exaggerates too much.
00:20:39 He says that everyone is a Mafioso,
00:20:42 the son or relative of a boss.
00:20:44 I do like him as a journalist, but he exaggerates a bit.
00:20:48 A bit too much.
00:20:49 What is Pino?
PELLERITO CHILD:
00:20:51 P.O.S.
INTERVIEWER:
00:20:52 And what does that mean?
PELLERITO CHILD:
00:20:54 A piece of shit.
PELLERITO FATHER:
00:20:56 This is what it means, a piece of shit.
PELLERITO GRANDFATHER:
00:20:58 As a journalist he is strong and courageous,
00:21:02 he has courage to spare,
00:21:07 but he attacks too heavily.
PELLERITO FATHER:
00:21:09 When someone is condemned for being in the Mafia,
00:21:12 and has served his sentence, 8, 10, 15 years in prison
00:21:15 after that, it is only fair that he has the chance
00:21:19 to rebuild his life, right?
00:21:20 With Pino, this is impossible. He is always chasing them.
00:21:23 We are not a big city, but a town of 35,000 inhabitants only.
00:21:27 We all know each other.
00:21:29 As a result, you get emotional when you see that among
00:21:33 those who are arrested, there are some of your friends.
NARRATOR:
00:21:41 Talking about the Mafia is acceptable, but getting your friends and relatives condemned is something else entirely.
INTERVIEWER:
00:21:47 Has Partinico improved thanks to Telejato?
PELLERITO SON:
00:21:50 No, Partinico always stays the same.
00:21:52 Nothing changes.
00:21:54 It’s always the same story.
00:21:56 They always say: We will defeat the Mafia.
00:22:01 But the Mafia is like moss, which always grows back.
00:22:06 It’s always the same. The further we go, the worse it gets.
INTERVIEWER:
00:22:11 Do you all agree?
PELLERITO FATHER:
00:22:12 Yes. It’s not Telejato that will defeat the Mafia.
NARRATOR:
00:22:20 Apart from being a journalist, Pino Maniaci is becoming a well-known activist, who is asked to speak at various events…
PRESENTER:
00:22:24 And now we’ll listen to the director of Telejato…
NARRATOR:
00:22:30 …like this one in Palermo, in front of the Palace of Justice.
PRESENTER:
00:22:33 …Pino Maniaci.
NARRATOR:
00:22:35 Here the killings of Falcone and Borsellino are commemorated.
PINO MANIACI:
00:22:40 Those politicians who still continue to be colluded
00:22:45 with the Mafia
00:22:47 are pieces of shit.
00:22:49 We will never be able to defeat the Mafia
00:22:53 unless we will cut the umbilical cord which ties together
00:22:58 the Mafia and politics, and that still exists today.
(Giovanbattista Tona judge)
GIOVANBATTISTA TONA:
00:23:03 The Mafia cannot be fought only through military intervention, 00:23:11 police forces and judges,
00:23:13 but also through culture and through the ability to tell the truth.
(Mario Azzolini journalist)
MARIO AZZOLINI:
00:23:23 Demonstrations, police forces and judges alone
00:23:26 are not enough, because people are still afraid,
00:23:31 and so they remain silent, in the dark.
00:23:33 They are not Mafiosi, but they have an attitude of
00:23:37 complicity towards the Mafia.
00:23:39 They often turn their head away, and
00:23:43 they don’t have the courage to fight out in the open.
GIOVANBATTISTA TONA:
00:23:46 Pino Maniaci has an ability to create a broad interest
00:23:52 around these themes among young people, and among
00:23:56 those who don’t have much education.
00:24:02 Most importantly, Pino managed to break a mechanism
00:24:07 that was at the basis of the strength of the Mafia:
00:24:11 the mechanism of fear and respect.
NARRATOR:
00:24:18 The constant pressure that Pino Maniaci and his family are working under is taking its toll. Pino is getting tired, and this raises the question of who will continue his mission when he retires.
PINO MANIACI:
00:24:30 When they don’t manage to bend your head,
00:24:39 these pieces of shit try to find your weak spot.
00:24:43 So they start threatening your children, burning their cars.
00:24:52 The problem is that I have educated them so well
00:24:57 that by now they follow me, and they don’t intend to step back.
00:25:01 And of course I’m very happy about this.
GIOVANNI MANAICI:
00:25:04 At Telejato it’s always a difficult moment.
00:25:07 You are always in a rush, you skip lunch and dinner,
00:25:13 you don’t have a life as everyone else.
00:25:16 Our life is frenetic, crazy, always in a rush.
00:25:20 It’s not a normal life.
PINO MANIACI:
00:25:24 I’m 60 years old. I don’t function properly anymore.
00:25:27 I’ve done what I could do.
00:25:29 In a way, I’m starting to feel tired. I’m starting to see
00:25:32 how heavy it is to work 20 hours a day.
00:25:37 I am starting to step back, not because of laziness,
00:25:40 but because of pure physical tiredness.
00:25:45 By now, they are the ones who guide the programme.
00:25:49 Despite some lack of will, sometimes, their idea is always
00:25:55 to keep going. And so we keep going.
00:26:03 I am worried for them because I know that they are
00:26:06 embarking on a very dangerous path.
PINO MANIACI:
00:26:25 My dream is a Sicily free from the cancer of the Mafia,
00:26:29 where my children and my grandchildren one day
00:26:32 will be able to live safely,
00:26:34 without those pieces of shit knocking on their door
00:26:36 to ask for the pizzo.
SALVO LO BIUNDO:
00:26:43 It will still take time to change our Sicily.
00:26:46 It will take many Pino Maniaci’s, many TV stations like his,
00:26:50 and many people who want to create a change.
00:26:53 This is what we need.
GIOVANNI PANTALEO:
00:26:58 In our Sicily, after the deaths of Falcone and Borsellino,
00:27:05 we really needed someone who would
00:27:07 awaken people’s conscience.
PINO MANIACI:
00:27:15 Pino Maniaci will remain alive as long as
00:27:17 he will hold a microphone in his hand.
00:27:19 The problem will be the day when I will put it down.
00:27:22 I’ll become a much easier target.
00:27:24 END CREDITS
A FILM BY
HANS VAN DIJK
ELENA BUTTI
ROB NIEMANTSVERDRIET
DIRECTOR
HANS VAN DIJK
CAMERA
ROB NIEMANTSVERDRIET
INTERVIEWS
ELENA BUTTI
EDITOR
ROB NIEMANTSVERDRIET
VOICE OVER
KEIT TETLEY
AUDIO POST-PRODUCTION
JOS HOES
SPECIAL THANKS TO
PINO MANIACI AND HIS FAMILY:
LETIZIA, GIOVANNI, SIMONA, PATRIZIA
VOLUNTEERS OF TELEJATO
PEOPLE OF PARTINICO
COPYRIGHT OMERTA FILMS 2014
28:00:17
28:30:00
Title shot
29:00:00
End shot
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