MONTHLY GUIDE MARCH 2018 | ISSUE 104 | EASTERN NEW SERIES! THE SECRETS OF BORGO LARICI New episodes and Series Finale! EUROCHANNEL GUIDE | MARCH 2018 | 1 Co-academic sponsors Virginia Commonwealth University and University of Richmond present March 22 – 25, 2018 26th annual • Byrd Theatre • Richmond, Va. • (804) 827-FILM • www.frenchfilmfestival.us College of Humanities and Sciences School of World Studies 2 | EUROCHANNEL GUIDE | MARCH 2018 | MONTHLY GUIDE | MARCH 2018 | ISSUE 104 Mafia Undercover The Secrets of Borgo Larici The first quarter of the year is underway and, at Eurochannel, we are proud to offer the finest in European audiovisual productions to celebrate it. This month, we have an exclusive selection of productions from Italy and France — some aired for the first time in the United States. All of these programs were impossible to watch unless you lived in Europe . until now! Chase This month, we are proud to premiere one of the most acclaimed crime dramas from Italy. In Mafia Undercover, you will meet a one-of-a-kind agent: Marco Solo. His mission is to collect evidence on one of the most prominent mafia bosses in Southern Italy. As an undercover agent in the dangerous TABLE OF ‘Ndrangheta, Marco soon realizes that the line between crime and the law becomes thinner every passing day. And, as if the task wasn’t difficult enough, CONTENTS he becomes involved in a love triangle with his secret girlfriend in the force and the sister of his new boss in the mafia. 4 Highlights In March, we also take you to France with a collection of riveting productions. 16 Week 1 In Chase, feel the thrill of a man who has just stole five million euros! Luis will 18 Week 2 put his life and his friends in danger to keep the loot from the police and a vicious gang leader. Will he be able to escape justice and death? 20 Week 3 22 Week 4 In a more uplifting tone, Back to Mom’s is a comedy that will keep you laughing from beginning to end as a man returns to his mother’s house after a divorce. This movie proves that there is nothing like mother’s love! EUROCHANNEL GUIDE PUBLISHED BY Eurochannel, Inc. EDITOR IN CHIEF Javier Pardo Barreto EDITORS Anna Oboza, Béranger Viot-Pineau, Cristina Silva, Zheljko Kojchic & Ismail Dibirov. ARTWORK Cristina Tejada EUROCHANNEL, INC. 235 Lincoln Road # 212 | Miami Beach, FL 33139 Gustavo Vainstein +1-(305)-531-1315 | www.eurochannel.com Eurochannel’s CEO ©2018 | All pictures rights are reserved. PREMIERE: March 27th 9:00 PM NEW SERIES! Italy Can a single man take the ‘Ndrangheta down? Over the past six years, Marco Solo has infiltrated the immerses you in guns, blood and action. When Marco goes Italian mafia with little risk. Now everything is bound to undercover in the powerful Corona family, he plunges into a change as the Interpol wants him to help in an international downward spiral of violence from which there is no turning investigation of a top capo. To take down a dangerous back. The choices he is forced to make to conceal his true international criminal, Marco must get to the very heart identity lead him into a gray area. Now, the line between of the ‘Ndrangheta’s most dangerous family and earn their the law and crime becomes blurred, as he risks, not only his trust. Eurochannel welcomes you to Southern Italy with its life, but his very soul. new event series: Mafia Undercover. Further complicating things, Marco faces the challenging Mafia Undercover is a heart-pounding four-part series choice between the woman he loves and the daughter of his that takes you into a world of contraband, drug trafficking, mafia boss, jeopardizing both his mission and his life over a extortion, murder and revenge, a world that revolves around bond he can’t seem to break. Eurochannel premieres a new a code of silence and unbreakable blood ties. Seen through and exciting event series full of action and thrills. Come to the eyes of Marco, an undercover agent whose mission is the Mediterranean with Marco, a man at the crossroad to infiltrate the family clan that controls the largest gateway between good and evil as he infiltrates the mafia’s most port for illegal trafficking in the Mediterranean, this series dangerous family. CAST Marco Bocci, Peppino Mazzotta, Diane Fleri, Renato Carpentieri GENRE Crime, drama ORIGINAL TITLE Solo YEAR 2016 SEASONS 2 X 8 EPISODES Season 1 - Episode 1 Undercover agent Marco Solo (Marco Bocci) is assigned the mission to infiltrate the Crown, a powerful family of Gioia Tauro’s ‘Ndrangheta. His first day on the job proves to be a decisive one for his destiny in the mafia and as a cop. What is the ‘Ndrangheta? One of the World’s Most Powerful and Infamous Mafias There are very few Italian enterprises that can boast revenues of roughly 60 billion dollars. That is the size of the illegal business of today’s largest mafia organization: the Italian ‘Ndrangheta. But how did they become the leading illegal organization worldwide? The Beginnings In a region as rich in olives and wine production as Calabria, located in Southern Italy, it was only a matter of time until criminal groups emerged. According to diverse historical accounts, the ‘Ndrangheta is believed to be born as early as 1861. That year, the prefect of Reggio Calabria noticed the presence of organized criminals called camorristi, a term used since there was no formal name for the phenomenon in Calabria. At that time, these criminal groups were also referred to by judges and the police as “secret societies”. These organizations, formed as family clans, have operated from their very beginning with a strict code of conduct, also called omertà, the code of silence. The code was also simple to apply as family members would ever testify against each other, making the ‘Ndrangheta a closed organization. The etymology of the word comes from the Greek term andragathía, meaning «heroism» and manly «virtue». In many areas of Calabria, the verb ‘ndranghitiari, from the Greek verb andragathízesthai, means «to engage in a defiant and valiant attitude». The first time the term ‘Ndrangheta was officialy used was in September 1995 by Calabrian writer Corrado Alvaro in the Corriere della Sera newspaper. In recent years, the organization has gained global notoriety because of the violent wars between its families. Disagreements over how to distribute the spoils led to the First ‘Ndrangheta war, in which 233 were killed. The Second ‘Ndrangheta war raged from 1985 to 1991. This fierce six-year war between the Condello-Imerti- Serraino-Rosmini clans and the De Stefano-Tegano-Libri-Latella clans led to more than 600 deaths in the region. Operations The main activities of the ‘Ndrangheta range from extortion, contraband, international cocaine and weapons smuggling to money laundering and involvement in large public work construction projects. The mafia are also alleged to own a series of legal investments in real estate and commerce, in Italy and abroad, used to launder their illegal profits. According to Eurispes (the European Institute of Political, Economic and Social Studies), in Italy, the business volume of the ‘Ndrangheta was estimated at almost 44 billion euro in 2007, approximately 2.9% of Italy’s GDP. Drug trafficking is the most profitable activity, accounting for 62% of its total income. 6 | EUROCHANNEL GUIDE | MARCH 2018 | BACK TO MOM’S France PREMIERE: CINEMA March 22nd 9:00 PM DIRECTOR Williams Crépin CAST Annie Cordy, Pierre Cassignard, Peggy Leray, Barthélémy Guillemard GENRE Comedy ORIGINAL TITLE Je retourne chez ma mère YEAR 2011 There’s nothing like a mother’s love! François (Pierre Cassignard), divorced and unemployed, finds himself on the street. He returns to live with Alice (Annie Cordy), his mother, claiming he has gotten a job with a local company. Confronted with his past, François accumulates lies that Alice does not take long to discover. François never thought that going back to his mother’s house humor, Back to Mom’s portrays the importance of family was going to change his life. Having lost his job some time through the relationship of François and Alice, his mother. To ago and being recently divorced, he only has his mom to get her, he will always be her child. She pampers him, worries back on track. But returning to his mother’s isn’t as simple as when he is late, and tells him off every chance she has. To he expected; she’s got a boyfriend and plenty of challenges François, things are more difficult. He has to maintain his lies for him. Come along with François as he goes Back to Mom’s! about the real reason for his return while trying to cope with his mother’s annoying habits. Back to Mom’s is a French comedy about the challenges of life and family. François is a 40-year-old man facing the hardest Eurochannel presents an uplifting comedy that proves life time of his life. His ex-wife is dating their gym coach; he’s just always offers us a second chance and that family is everything. been sacked from his job; he’s been kicked out of his house Enjoy a light and refreshing fable about the purest form of and now has no place to live. After running out of resources, love . a mother’s! his only way out is to live with his mother. With plenty of EUROCHANNEL GUIDE | MARCH 2018 | 7 Interview with WILLIAMS CRÉPIN (Director) How did you come up with the idea for this film? During a dinner with friends, I was surprised to see the young man I had seen grow up with his parents join us at the table.