A new documentary revealing the untold stories of women in the Mafia has premiered in Washington DC this week, bringing years of University of Bath research to the screen.
Mafia stories have traditionally focused on men. Casa Mia turns the spotlight on women, telling the stories of three generations whose lives have been shaped by the Neapolitan Camorra.
The documentary is based on research by Professor Felia Allum, an expert in organised crime and Italian mafias in the University of Bath’s Department of Politics, Languages & International Studies.
Brought to the screen by BAFTA-winning journalist and director Alexandra Genova, Casa Mia received its US premiere at the Double Exposure Film Festival in Washington DC on 7 November, where Genova presented the film and took part in a post-screening Q&A.
Spanning more than 60 years, the film explores family, loyalty, crime and survival, and challenges the idea that women are merely passive figures in the criminal world.
It follows Lucia, the daughter of a traditional guappo (boss) in the 1950s and 60s; Antonella, who was married to a boss in the 2000s; and Ida, who had family ties to the underworld in the 2010s. Each emerges as a woman with her own agency and voice.
Lucia died earlier this year, making the preservation of her testimony on film particularly significant.
Professor Felia Allum, University of Bath, said:
“For decades, our understanding of the Mafia has largely been built around men: male bosses, male violence and male criminal networks. But women have always been part of this world, and their experiences are far more complex than the stereotypes suggest.
“Casa Mia allows us to bring those experiences to the fore. Through three generations, we see how family, love, fear, loyalty and survival intersect with organised crime.
“The film gives audiences a perspective on the Mafia they rarely get to see and allows us to bring years of research to life through the voices and experiences of the women themselves. Crucially, it shows that women aren’t passive by-standers but fully active participants in this underworld."
Bringing years of Mafia research to the screen
Professor Allum has studied organised crime for more than two decades, including the Italian Mafia and particularly the Neapolitan Camorra. Her more recent work has focused on the roles women play in organised crime.
Casa Mia takes that research beyond academia, allowing audiences to hear directly from women whose lives have been shaped by the Camorra.
Alexandra Genova, director of Casa Mia, said:
“With Casa Mia, I wanted to move beyond the familiar mythology of the mafia and look instead at the women whose lives unfold in its shadow. Too often, these women are either absent from the story or reduced to archetypes: victims, wives or mothers. I am interested in the far more complicated space in between; in their contradictions and the structures of power that shape the choices available to them.
“As a documentary filmmaker and journalist, I have always been drawn to questions of identity and belonging. Casa Mia marks a more authored and cinematic evolution in that practice, combining investigative research with a visually poetic approach. Structured loosely around the ritual of the Way of the Cross, the film draws on the symbolism and traditions of the Catholic religion that is deeply embedded in Neapolitan culture.
The landscape is also personally resonant; my grandfather was born in Calabria before emigrating to America in his early twenties and I have long felt a connection to the life and culture he left behind.
“At a moment when organised crime continues to be romanticised and female experience is increasingly reduced to extremes, I believe there is urgency in looking more closely. Casa Mia is not an attempt to speak for these women but to make space for lives rarely afforded complexity on screen.”
The project is supported by the Economic and Social Research Council and Okay Studios.