Sydney Underground Film Festival's video: Albanian Gangster - Sydney Underground Film Festival 2019

Matthew A. Brown | 81mins | USA | Crime | Australian Premiere | 2018 Official Selection: Once, Leon was a legend. A senior member of the Albanian mafia, he was respected, feared and had New York in the palm of his hand. Now, after 18 years in prison, Leon’s fame is quickly relegated to a fading memory. Living in his mother’s basement, he’s a rabid dog, harbouring untold grievances and desperate for the life and dreams he once knew. But everything is about to change for Leon, when he bumps into the man who ratted him out all those years ago, a former colleague, turned informant.  Ingratiating himself into the real Albanian mafia and shooting with in authentic locations with a cast of non-actors playing fictional versions of themselves, director Matthew A. Brown has weaved together an artful hybrid fiction that stands assuredly next to gangster classics like Scorsese’s Goodfellas and Garrone’s Gomorrah.