A Ciambra Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.5
Overall		3.5

A Ciambra Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 31, 2024

Jonas Carpignano's "A Ciambra" (2017) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Sundance Selects/MPI Home Video. The supplemental features on the release include documentary film about the real Ciambra; deleted scenes; short film; and more. In Italian, with optional English subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

The thief

The Ciambra is a lot like Secondigliano. It is a slum in the Italian south that was once meant to be something entirely different. It operates on autopilot, exactly like Secondigliano does, and the overwhelming majority of the people who live there are unemployed. Most of these people have broken the law and have been arrested at least once. They used to be Italians and gypsies only. Now, they are a motley crew of Italians, gypsies, and illegal aliens, virtually all of whom are from African countries.

However, there are a few crucial differences between the Ciambra and Secondigliano. The Ciambra is a neighborhood of Gioia Tauro in Calabria, the most southern region of the Italian peninsula. Secondigliano is a neighborhood in Naples. The Ciambra is dramatically smaller and not as densely populated as Secondigliano. It is a lot poorer than Secondigliano, too. In some corners of the Ciambra, there are no sewers and electricity. Because it is not possible to make a lot of money selling drugs there, the mafia has not moved in. Smaller local gangs, paying fees to the mafia, have divided the area, and family crews, most of them gypsy crews, have teamed up with other crews from different parts of Italy. Together, they steal anything that can be resold on the black market – cars, electronic equipment, clothes, and even copper cables that are always in demand.

The main protagonist of Jonas Carpignano’s film A Ciambra is a gypsy boy named Pio (Pio Amato) who lives in the Ciambra and steals to help his large family make ends meet. His brother, who is several years older than him, is already a hardened criminal and a senior member of a local gang. Pio has repeatedly argued that he is already a “man” and ready to join the same gang, but has been turned down under different pretexts. For this reason, Pio has befriended Ayiva (Koudous Seihon), an illegal immigrant from Burkina Faso, who has treated him like a “man” and relied on him to supply stolen goods he can resell.

When his brother is arrested by the carabinieri and their family is served a bill for several thousand euros owed for stolen electricity, Pio begins improvising, and soon after makes a series of awful mistakes. While evaluating his options, Ayiva helps him, but eventually, he is forced to choose between his friendship and his family.

It is not exactly a secret that many of the biggest cities across Europe are carefully divided by gypsy clans that control small armies of professional thieves and pickpockets. For the right to operate there, the leaders of the gypsy clans pay fees to prominent mafia bosses connected to powerful politicians. This is a very well-organized business, contributing many millions of dollars to a growing global criminal economy.

A Ciambra offers a glimpse into the social reality that enables this business, which is not an Italian phenomenon. The same social reality is present in numerous Eastern European countries, like Romania, Hungary, and Bulgaria, which the most powerful gypsy clans call home. Pio is like any other up-and-coming young thief and pickpocket who will inevitably join one of these clans, too. His future is predetermined, and he, his parents and relatives, and everyone else in the Ciambra knows it.

While most of A Ciambra does have a borderline documentary appearance, it is unfair to compare it to the great Italian neorealist masterpieces. Indeed, its tone and ambience are similar to those of the award-winning TV series Gomorrah. It is just a smaller, less violent production whose grasp of the complex big picture Pio is part of is very basic.

A Ciambra was selected to represent Italy in the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 90th Academy Awards.

A Ciambra Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.85:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, A Ciambra arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Sundance Selects/MPI Home Video.

The entire film looked very good on my system. However, I would like to immediately point out that in some areas clarity and depth fluctuate. Why? The film has a borderline documentary appearance. Some sections of it were shot with a fast-moving hand-held camera, plus quite a bit of this material is rather dark. Colors are lush and natural, often easy to describe as warm, too. Image stability is excellent. Some minor encoding optimizations could have been introduced, but there are no serious anomalies to report. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray release. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free player in order to access its content).

A Ciambra Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are two standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and Italian LPCM 2.0. Optional English subtitles are provided for the main feature.

I viewed the entire film with the Italian DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. Unsurprisingly, all exchanges and all action footage sound great. Dynamic contrasts are uneven, often feeling a bit abrupt too, but there are a lot of organic sounds and noises that enter the film, so this is to be expected. I did not encounter any encoding anomalies to report. The English translation is excellent.

A Ciambra Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Ciambra: The Other Side of the Story - this documentary takes a closer look at the real Ciambra, where Jonas Carpignano shot his film, and the reality of its residents. Some of them explain how the area changed over the years. In Italian, with English subtitles. (52 min).

• From A Ciambra to Cannes - in this short featurette, Jonas Carpignano and cast members are seen preparing for and visiting Cannes, where A Ciambra had its premiere in the Directors' Fortnight section. Music only. (3 min).

• Deleted Scenes -
  
  1. Cocchi Sleeps
  2. Copper
  3. Soldier

• A Ciambra: A Short Film - an alternate short version of A Ciambra. In Italian, with English subtitles. (17 min).

• Trailer - an original trailer for A Ciambra. In Italian, with English subtitles. (3 min).

A Ciambra Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

The likes of Piranhas, Dogman, and especially Gomorrah have raised the bar so high that they cannot be kept out of any discussion where Italian films dissecting Italian urban reality are mentioned. I had to draw comparisons too, and while I like A Ciambra quite a bit, it is just not as hard-hitting and illuminating as its closest relative, Gomorrah. This recent release offers a solid technical presentation of A Ciambra with a fine selection of bonus features, one of which is a long documentary about life in the area where the film was shot. RECOMMENDED.