Overview: Based on the true story of Cesare Mori, The Iron Prefect tells the story of a man sent to Sicily for an Eliot Ness-in-The Untouchables style clean up of the mafia.

Mori approaches organized crime on the island with uncompromising force, even in the face of mass murders designed to scare him off. Pasquale Squitieri (The Climber) directs this stunning period piece which won the David di Donatello award for best film and features spaghetti western icon Giuliano Gemma brilliantly playing against type as the titular hero, winning him an award for his performance at the prestigious Karlovy Vary Film Festival.

Alongside Gemma are the cream of international film from the period with co-stars Claudia Cardinale (The Day of the Owl) and Francisco Rabal (Sorcerer), the key surveyor of Italy’s civic cinema screenwriter Ugo Pirro (The Working Class Goes to Heaven) and legendary composer Ennio Morricone (Once Upon a Time in America).

Blu-ray Verdict: Within a very quick moment of time, Mori, we learn, is not a fascist himself (he had previously opposed the regime), but a stern man of law determined to see justice prevail.

After the brutal murder of a family, Mori resorts to direct, extreme methods - more a war than a police operation (he was granted complete freedom of action). When the prefect and his men besiege a town which has become a bandits stronghold, they leave everyone without water, including women and children, until the surrender.

Gemma, lead of many spaghetti westerns, gives a tight performance, probably the best of his career. He plays Mori as a steely man with much righteous anger boiling under his cold facade. Stefano Satta Flores gives a vivid portrayal of his right-hand man.

And as much as Claudia Cardinale has a largely unnecessary role as a minor character, and features in a could-have-done-without subplot, and one that dutifully feels shoehorned in to her something to do, the prolific composer Ennio Morricone brings us one of his Top 10 scores, of that have no doubt.

Mori’s methods give effective results against low, violent crime. However, when he attempts to tackle the higher spheres of the Mafia, he discovers their ties with key political figures. In the bitter epilogue, Mori tries to open the can of worms nonetheless, only to be stopped by the same people who had initially given him his task.

In closing, and albeit not a masterpiece, it tells a very unusual story about the Italian Mafia in history, and the decision that Mussolini made to eradicate the Octopus, once and for all.

A powerful, gritty film, with a few genuinely terrific, stand alone scenes, such as the one where a Mafia leader smashes his own skull on his cell wall, to be sure not to talk to the police, it’s moments like that where you know your time devoted to the celluloid 90 minutes is one well spent.

2K restoration of the film from the original negative presented with Italian and English audio options
Uncompressed mono PCM audio
Archival interview with director Pasquale Squitieri and star Giuliano Gemma (2009)
New interview with Squitieri biographer Domenico Monetti (2023)
New appreciation of Giuliano Gemma and the film by filmmaker Alex Cox (2023)
Original trailer
New and improved English subtitles for Italian audio and English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing for English audio
Reversible sleeve featuring designs based on original posters
Limited edition booklet featuring new writing by Italian cinema expert Guido Bonsaver and an original article on the real-life Cesare Mori and his Mafia raid as depicted within the film
Limited edition of 2000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of text and markings

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