The Ruthless

We are in the midst of the economic boom, in a metropolis - Milan - destined to a dizzying economic and criminal growth.
Santo Russo, a Calabrian who grew up in the hinterland, after the first thefts in the suburbs and the juvenile prison, decides to follow his aspirations and to undertake definitively the life of the criminal. Within a few years he becomes the mind and the armed wing of a powerful and feared gang, launching himself into increasingly dirty and profitable business: robbery, kidnapping, drug trafficking, money laundering, and not least “miracles”: bloodshed executions. In his unbridled race towards wealth and social satisfaction, Santo Russo is divided between two women: his wife, submissive and devoted, and his lover, a beautiful woman, elegant and unattainable. Two antipodal choices of life and two opposite faces of himself. Santo's criminal path is made up of inevitable choices and painful trajectories: those who live or those who die, passionate love or family, the bourgeois dream or a ruthless life. Lo Spietato is a journey along a quarter of a century in the universe of the Italian mala told through the story of Santo Russo, a yuppie-like gangster who moves in the kaleidoscopic and dizzying reality of Milan in the golden years of fashion, easy money, avant-garde art and disco music. Directed by Renato De Maria, written by De Maria itself with Valentina Strada and Federico Gnesini, the film is freely inspired by “Manager Calibro 9” by Piero Colaprico and Luca Fazzo. Riccardo Scamarcio is Santo Russo, with Sara Serraiocco, Alessio Praticò, Alessandro Tedeschi and Marie-Ange Casta. Produced by ANGELO and MATILDE BARBAGALLO A BIBI FILM with RAI CINEMA production