Desc: Killing Silence: Taking on the Mafia in Sicily: Directed by John Michalczyk. With Will Lyman. "Killing Silence: Taking on the Mafia in Sicily" (2004, 50 min.) looks at the historic rise of the Mafia from the waning days of World War II to the Mafia wars of the 1970s and '80s. The film continues with a depiction of the birth of the anti-Mafia movement when the citizens of Palermo, along with some fearless and charismatic leaders, literally took to the streets in outrage following the horrific 1992 Mafia slayings of two leading prosecutors, Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino. In the film, Sicilians discuss the goal of the anti-Mafia movement: to break the code of silence (omerta) and reclaim their neighborhoods and their culture from Mafia rule. Interviews with the former mayor of Palermo, Leoluca Orlando, and Sicilian-born Cardinal Salvatore Papalardo, retired bishop of Palermo, reveal the power the Mafia exerted in Sicily. Authors, psychologists and the son of a business owner murdered by the Mafia speak with hope about a new generation willing to discuss and challenge the old ways of life in Mafia-controlled Sicily. - Olga Teresa Sarbinowska