On Netflix there's the new generation of "ACAB – The Series"
Thirteen years after the film, the cops from Carlo Bonini's book are back
January 15th, 2025
Times change, and the acronym ACAB remains. In 2012, the novel written by Carlo Bonini became a film scripted by Barbara Petronio, Daniele Cesarano, and Leonardo Valenti, and directed by Stefano Sollima, who continued to follow projects/relatives of the dark and criminal Rome, especially when it involved state authorities, with Suburra (2015) and Adagio (2023). This time, the story, which draws inspiration from both the book and the film but then adapts to the events and society of today, becomes a Netflix series that shifts from the ultra-fan curves to the No TAV protestors, showing the same violence as previous productions but involving different political sides, aiming to be as relevant to current times as possible. It is no coincidence that the show, to which Bonini himself contributes in the screenplay together with Filippo Gravino, Elisa Dondi, Luca Giordano, and Bernardo Pellegrini, opens with the “riot cops” ready to lynch a group of “zecche”, bringing the clash onto a turf where both sides will suffer. Nor is it a coincidence that, compared to the film’s ideological claustrophobia from 2012, the series broadens the perspective on the differences created by wearing a badge, not depicting all police officers as comrades, but questioning their principles and actions directly within the station.
ACAB - The Series tells the story of the battalion led by Officer Mazinga, again played by Marco Giallini and also present in Sollima’s film (here serving as executive producer), although in a same-but-different role, and the divergences with their new boss Michele, played by Adriano Giannini. Same uniform, two different ways of thinking: on one side, the solidary and protective component of a badge that, once worn, makes everyone brothers; on the other side, a reformist mentality that does not necessarily accept the need to be part of a pack and does not tolerate gratuitous beatings, shoving, and aggression, especially if kept silent. Compared to the 2012 film, there is thus a glimpse where the viewer can try to take refuge, unlike meeting the darkness within the protagonists who accompanied the “old” Giallini on the big screen (Pierfrancesco Favino, Filippo Nigro, Domenico Diele), under the shadow of the tragedy of the Diaz school events. Violence, in the film’s case, is fed by more violence. Two identical sides of the same coin clash by following equally misguided beliefs, though born from the same roots. Police, criminals, violent individuals, racists, ultras, fascists. All are made of the same substance, unlike the opposition introduced in the series by Giannini’s character, who is forced into a confrontation with two classic but incisive clichés. First, the rhetoric of a city like Rome that leaves no escape, a metaphor of a legion that you must join and follow its rules or return to wherever you came from. Second, the “infame” (traitor) label classifies the man with his new role in the capital, opposed by subordinates who, by standing together, try to corner him.
92) ACAB: All Cops Are Bastards (Stefano Sollima, 2012) pic.twitter.com/e4YSsl4tS0
— is it okay if I meet you in heaven? (@comuniicare) August 30, 2023
Practices that the ACAB police officers carry out whenever it suits them, as seen in the first episode. After gathering all the riot control batons in a bathtub, the objects are washed with bleach to erase any trace of their involvement in the events unfolding in Val di Susa. A partnership that, for the series, also includes a female police officer, played by Valentina Bellè. Proof of how times have changed since the film’s release, even though everything else seems to have remained the same. More murky than its serial sibling Suburra, and affected by superfluous slowdowns that weaken its tight and frantic pace, ACAB - The Series aims for the Antidisturbios: Riot Unit effect by Rodrigo Sorogoyen and ends up being a mixture of good-quality production and accessibility to a wide audience, thanks to a platform like Netflix, an ideal setting for such a blend. The questioning of those who feel above the law, when the silent harmony between power and control begins to crumble. The struggle against the worst part of ourselves, ultimately deciding whether to defeat it or embrace it.