Matteo Boe—the former Sardinian bandit released in 2017 after 25 years in prison—is also among the cast of Fabio Manuel Mulas 's "La resa dei conti," which he produced. Bono's director has tailor-made a role for him: Boe plays himself in the sequel to Bandidos e Balentes. His alter ego, meanwhile, is played by Giovanni Antonio Brancazzu. The film chronicles the dark years of Sardinian banditry, of which Boe was a leading figure.
"It's certainly a controversial participation. But the choice was dictated by the need to bring cinema closer to reality. I tell a story where different episodes intertwine, in the spirit of cinema verite, and where," says the director, "there will also be scenes shot in the Bancali 41 bis prison, in Maimone, and in the Asinara maximum security prison from which Boe escaped while serving his sentence for the kidnapping of little Farouk Kassam, which occurred on the Costa Smeralda in 1992, an episode that deeply shocked public opinion."
For many years, Matteo Boe chose to remain silent. "It wasn't easy, but after meeting after meeting, he finally agreed to take part in the film, and ten months ago he filmed his scenes," Mulas explains. While the first installment of the saga focused on the 1950s and 1960s, the director now looks to the 1970s and 1990s to reconstruct the crime stories of those decades.
The film also commemorates Patrizia Incollu, the director of the Bancali (Sassari) and Badu 'e Carros (Nuoro) prisons, who died in a car accident in 2023. Caterina Murino has been cast in her role. She is joined by the students of the Lorenzo Paolo Medas Autism Foundation in Sassari. "The word 'Balentes' once meant a brave, honorable man," observes Mulas. "Over the years, it has morphed into a domineering bully. I created a powerful scene about bullying, leaving the students free to interpret it themselves."
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