The Sicilian Checkmate

The Sicilian Checkmate (original title La violenza: quinto potere) is a 1972 Italian crime-drama film directed by Florestano Vancini. Adapted from Giuseppe Fava's stage play La violenza, it was scripted by Massimo Felisatti, Fabio Pittorru, and Vancini, with music by Ennio Morricone. The film portrays the powerlessness of the rule of law in the face of mafia structures and crimes in the Italy of its time.

The story centers on two mafia clans clashing over a dam construction in Sicily: one backs contractor Barresi, who seeks the tender, the other engineer and landowner Crupi, whose citrus groves the project would destroy. After a long chain of crimes that also claims innocent lives, a trial follows in which one defendant ready to confess commits suicide in prison, another is declared mentally ill, and the true culprits walk free. The large cast includes Enrico Maria Salerno, Gastone Moschin, Riccardo Cucciolla, Mario Adorf, and Guido Celano.