‘Revenge: war in the anti-mafia’, from September on Netflix

‘Vendetta: guerra nell’antimafia’ is the new Italian Netflix docu-series in 6 episodes produced by the award-winning production company Nutopia in association with the Italian production company Mon Amour Films which will be available from 24 September in all countries where the service is active. The docu-series tells and reconstructs the human and procedural events, but also the clash, between Pino Maniaci and Silvana Saguto, two prominent personalities of the anti-mafia who, during their professional life, found themselves involved in controversial and accused situations of crimes against which they themselves had to fight. Written and produced by Ruggero di Maggio and Davide Gambino (Mon Amour Films) and by Nicola Moody, Jane Root and David Herman (Nutopia), Vendetta: guerra nell’antimafia is the result of a work started in December 2005 with unprecedented access to the protagonists, their families, their legal teams, the Sicilian courtrooms and a vast archive and repertory material. The intent is to offer a story in real time and an objective point of view on a recent story, complex and full of twists, truths and lies. The protagonists of the docu-series are in fact Pino Maniaci, journalist and presenter who for over 20 years with his Sicilian TV broadcaster Telejato has given space to the fight against organized crime, and Silvana Saguto, now a former magistrate of the Court of Palermo who, as President of the section Prevention Measures, for years she was one of the most important judges and at the forefront in the fight against the mafia in Sicily. The stories of the two protagonists are intertwined when in 2013 Maniaci begins to conduct a series of investigations into serious episodes of corruption against some representatives of the Sicilian judiciary, in particular of the Prevention Measures section of the Court of Palermo, focusing precisely on Silvana Saguto. Maniaci accuses the then magistrate of having illegally seized assets, charging excessive fees for their administration, and having led several companies into bankruptcy, with the complicity of her husband and some collaborators. Silvana Saguto in turn accuses Pino Maniaci of favoring the mafia that he himself attacked from his TV station. In 2016, the Palermo prosecutor’s office investigated Pino Maniaci for defamation and extortion accusing him of having used a “pincer method”, intent on denigrating or exalting, through his TV services, local mafia and politicians in exchange for cash payments. In the same year, Silvana Saguto is also investigated: against her 39 charges including corruption, abuse of office and embezzlement. Both claim to be innocent. They both believe the other is guilty. Both declare themselves victims of a vengeance. Vendetta: war in the anti-mafia ends with the first degree verdicts of Silvana Saguto and Pino Maniaci. In October 2020, Silvana Saguto was found guilty of corruption and sentenced in the first instance to 8 years and 6 months. In April 2021, Pino Maniaci was acquitted in first instance of the extortion sentence and sentenced for defamation to 1 year and 5 months.