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Think of Sicily and the images that are conjured up may be of a harsh arid land where organised crime rules without impunity and corruption is rife. "Il ladro di merendine" or "The Snack Thief" as it is called in Australia, is the first of the Inspector Montalbano series of TV movies and it shows that there is much more to Sicily than what is seen in American Mafia movies. Luca Zingaretti plays Salvo Montalbano, a police inspector (Commissario) in a Sicilian town with a cynicism and world-weariness similar his British counterparts Morse and Frost. He is assisted by a band of devoted agents with varying degrees of competence (Angelo Russo gives wonderfully comic moments as the bumbling Catarella) as well as his girlfriend Livia (Katharina Bohm). The Snack Thief begins with Montalbano investigating the stabbing murder of a wealthy businessman in the elevator of the block of flats where he lived. However, things are never straightforward for Montalbano and his investigation leads him into a world of blackmail and conspiracy. In the middle of all this, is a young Tunisan boy, Fahrid, who Montalbano takes into his home while searching for the boy's mother. This is a wonderful production with superb cinematography showing the best of the Sicilian countryside. Sure the violence and corruption is shown (it is, after all, a police drama) but it merely forms part of the background for the far more interesting human drama. Kudos to SBS Australia for bringing this wonderful series to the wider, English-speaking audience.
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