Romanzo Criminale

In 1970s Rome, four young delinquents, nicknamed Ice (Il Freddo), Lebanese (Libano), Dandi, and Grand, steal a car. Crashing through a police road block, the driver, Grand is crushed by the steering column. Back at their hideout, a small disused caravan near a beach, they are discovered by the police. Ice, Lebanese, and Dandi run away, but are captured. Grand, who is mortally wounded, dies in the caravan.

Some years later, in the 1970s, Ice is released from prison and joins up with Lebanese, who tells him he has come up with a plan to kidnap and hold to ransom Baron Rossellini, a wealthy aristocrat for whom Lebanese's parents worked. He has formed a gang with Dandi - they are Black (Il Nero), Bright Eye, Ricotta, Bufalo, Rat and Ciro and Aldo Buffoni. After negotiating the ransom of 3 billion lire, the Baron is shot by one of the Cannizzari brothers who have been entrusted by Lebanese to guard him. Nonetheless, they take a picture of the dead man with a newspaper and get the 3 billion lire. Before the gang receives the money, the local Police Commissioner Nicola Scialoja manages to record its serial numbers and sets out to capture the gang. As the gang divide up the money, Lebanese proposes to split 500 million lire between them, and use the remaining 2.5 billion to build a foothold in the criminal underworld of Rome, starting with drug dealing. However, the drug racket is owned by the dealer Terrible, and so the gang wipe out his gang, apart from Gemito, whom Lebanese bribes to help them. After his home is raided and his bodyguards killed, Terrible wakes to find Ice, Lebanese, and Dandi in his bedroom. Cornered, he reluctantly agrees to let give control of the racket to the gang.

The gang grows in influence and ambition. Rome falls under their rule, and the rule of Lebanese. Dandi meets and becomes enamored with an upmarket prostitute, Patrizia, who, in order to be kept under the sway of the gang and in order to prevent Dandi becoming involved in brawls provoked by his jealousy, is bought over and given a brothel. Ice, meanwhile falls in love with his younger brother Gigio's tutor, Roberta. However, Lebanese begins to consider Ice's romance a weakness, a point reinforced when Ice asks to withdraw from the gang. In response, Lebanese brings up the car theft from their childhood, where his leg was permanently damaged by the pursuing police. Ice and Roberta begin to learn English with the idea that they will elope. However, when Ice is at the Bologna Train Station, there was an organized bombing, representing the state collusion. Later, Ice receives a phone call informing him that Lebanese is dead, stabbed by Gemito after a bitter game of poker.

Then begins Ice's quest for vengeance, aided by Dandi.

Yet Scialoja is on their trail and succeeds in capturing Ice, then the other members of the gang except Dandi. Ice plans to escape from prison with the help of his friends, but a deadly spiral of score-settling has already begun to coil around them all.

• Kim Rossi Stuart - Il Freddo
• Anna Mouglalis - Patrizia
• Pierfrancesco Favino - Libano
• Claudio Santamaria - Il Dandi
• Stefano Accorsi - Commissario Scialoja
• Riccardo Scamarcio - Il Nero
• Jasmine Trinca - Roberta
• Toni Bertorelli - La Voce
• Gigi Angelillo - Zio Carlo
• Antonello Fassari - Ciro Buffoni
• Elio Germano - Il Sorcio
• Franco Interlenghi - Barone Rosellini
• Donato Placido - Colussi
• Massimo Popolizio - Il Terribile

• Romanzo Criminale at IMDb
• Toby (2016-07-20). "Was für eine Serie ist Romanzo Criminale?" (in German). Retrieved 2023-09-26.