It's the story of two brothers who became bitter enemies.

For five seasons, the Italian mafia series "Gomorrah" has told the feud between the mafiosi Ciro and Gennaro.

She led her viewers into the abysses of the world of the Neapolitan mafia clans, the Camorra, a world in which entire neighborhoods are drawn into the cocaine trade and children commit murder for hire.

The orphan boy Ciro is one of these child soldiers.

His mother dies in the 1980 Naples earthquake, only he is saved alive from the rubble of his apartment block.

Since then he has been nicknamed "L'Immortale", the immortal.

At first, Ciro is a loyal supporter of the drug lord of the slums of Naples.

He has worked his way up to become his right-hand man and serves as a mentor to his son Gennaro.

But when he realizes that he will never be more than that, he rebels.

The end of the story of Ciro "the immortal" di Marzio (Marco D'Amore) and Gennaro "Genny" Savastano (Salvatore Espositio) is currently on Sky.

The documentary series has reached millions of viewers worldwide since its premiere in 2014.

Her success was due not only to the way she told the story, but also to the pull she had on Italian youth.

Fascination of the dark anti-heroes

"Gomorrah" is a phenomenon whose reception is making waves in the Italian world.

On the one hand, the series has brought the debate about the mafia problem back into the center of social discourse.

The problem of organized crime and its involvement in business and politics is a hotly debated topic in Italy.

On the other hand, critics argue about the fascination of the dark anti-heroes from "Gomorrah" and their impact on Italian youth.

Anti-mafia prosecutors accuse the series makers of glorifying the lives of gangsters.

The framework for the story is formed by the works of the Italian investigative journalist Roberto Saviano, who was involved in the development of the series.

The starting point of the plot is the Secondigliano War, also known as the Scampia Feud.

In the mid-2000s, there was a bloody clash between Camorra clans in neighboring neighborhoods in the northern periphery of Naples.

Back then, a group of renegade Camorristi broke away from the powerful di Lauro family, which dominated the cocaine trade.

The di Lauro clan serves as the template for the fictional Savastano clan in the series, with father Don Pietro (Fortunato Cerlino) and son Gennaro as the main protagonists on one side and the formerly loyal and now renegade gangster Ciro di Marzio on the other .

Young people in Naples shot pistols in the air last New Year's Eve.

Videos of the scenes circulated on social media: a reminiscence of "Gomorrah", in which a gang from the Forcella district shoots wildly and rolls through the streets of Naples on their scooters.

And then there's the ignominious story of actor Vincenzo Sacchettino, who was arrested for gun possession and served time in prison for drug trafficking in 2019.

In the series he plays the child soldier Danielino, who commits a contract killing for 1000 euros.

The Neapolitan journalist Amalia De Simone, who writes about the Camorra for the daily Corriere della Sera, considers the entire aesthetic of the subculture in "Gomorrah" to be a problem.

The series represents and reproduces the lack of prospects in the suburbs of Naples.

The narrative of needy youth who can't help but join the Camorra is dangerous, says De Simone.

Broad Neapolitan dialect

The source of the attraction that "Gomorrah" has on Italy's youth, however, lies much more in reality than in fiction.

Youth unemployment is high in the cities of southern Italy, and there is a lack of important infrastructure in the suburbs and in the countryside.

In Campania, there are enough young people without prospects, for whom the clan's clan jobs promise quick money.