Maxi - The Great Trial Against Mafia

February 10, 1986: the "Maxi-trial" against Cosa Nostra begins. For the first time, more than 400 mafiosi are called to answer for dozens of crimes, in a huge courtroom (which everyone calls "the green spaceship") built for the occasion. The very first days see the Court still taking the measures of this enormous trial, while the mobsters growl from their cages: the old boss Luciano Liggio tries to upset the judges with his attitude, while "pentito" Salvatore Di Marco threatens to retract his deposition. But just ten days after the beginning of the trial, a news arrives: Michele Greco, known as "The Pope" and head of the Cupola (Mafia's main council of the bosses), is arrested and will be trialled among other bosses.

After the arrest of Michele Greco, the big bosses who have been controlling Palermo for years begin to show up in the courtroom. The first one is Pippo Calò, known as "the Mafia's Cashier": he is the first to defend himself against contesting the accusations of Tommaso Buscetta, "the Boss of the Two Worlds" and the trial's most awaited protagonist, whose deposition (April 3, 1986) is a key moment. Meanwhile, to better tell the horrors of which Mafia is capable, Franco brings Gianni to Corleone to realise a TV service about the fiefdom of the last two great fugitive bosses, Totò Riina and Bernardo Provenzano.

April 10, 1986: it's the day of the confrontation between Pippo Calò and Tommaso Buscetta, the most awaited and most heated moment of the whole debate: Calò accuses his former friend of being unreliable, focusing on his marital infidelities; Buscetta reacts by emphasising Calò's contradictions, and blaming him for the disappearance of his two sons. Then, Buscetta abruptly speaks of a homicide cold case, of which he claims Calò is responsible. Then, it's time for another "pentito", Salvatore Contorno, to face the judges: with his intervention in strict Sicilian dialect, dotted with a colourful language and a lot of anger, Contorno reveals the background of various heinous crimes, and tells the details of the failed murder attempt against him.

Many months have passed since the Palermo maxi-trial began. The atmosphere is even more tense after the killing of Nino D'Uva, a lawyer from Messina killed during another Mafia-related trial. Prosecutors keeps their stance strong, and even statements from some of the most prominent defendant, such as Michele Greco and Luciano Liggio, fail to change the course of things. The trial becomes more and more the symbol of the wounds, and of the desire of redemption of the city of Palermo, with the deposition of Mafia's tax collector Ignazio Salvo, one of the most powerful links between the criminal organisation and politics: his arrival in court dramatically symbolises how the caste of "untouchables" in Palermo no longer exists.

After hundreds of mafiosi (from the big bosses to the picciotti) have already made their appearance, 1986 Summer see the depositions of the relatives of the victims: from General Carlo Alberto Dalla Chiesa's family to that of the Head of Police Mobile Squad Boris Giuliano, from the omertose widows of Mafia's excellent victims to the desperate mothers and the reticent witnesses. Then, in the autumn of 1986, the killing of an innocent 10-years-old child (and the popular reaction to it) seems to upset the balance between prosecutors and defence again, with lawyers ready to play their last trump card.

Almost two years have passed since the beginning of the debate, and the maxi-trial is finally about to end. It's December 16, 1987: the courtroom fills up again with journalists from every country, relatives of the victims, defendants on the loose. All together, they listen to the verdict: after a two-hours-long reading, 19 life sentences and 2,665 total years of prison are adjudicate to 360 of the 474 defendants. It is a victory for prosecutors who see their accusatory system hold up, and a major defeat for Cosa Nostra, which for the first time sees its most important bosses jailed and the very existence of the organisation eventually recognised in court.