Cinema in Sicily blocks film about ‘local hero’ mafia boss

The only cinema in the Sicilian hometown of Italy’s most notorious mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro has refused to screen a critical film based on his life, leading to speculation that it is a result of his heroic status among locals.

Salvatore Vaccarino, owner of Cinema Marconi in Castelvetrano, said he would not show Sicilian letters because “it doesn’t interest me and doesn’t concern me”.

The film, which premiered at the Venice Film Festival this month, follows Messina Denaro during his three decades on the run from the murder of fifty people as a leading member of Sicily’s Cosa Nostra.

Known as the ‘last godfather’, he was tracked down last year at a clinic in Palermo where he was being treated