Four criminal organisations and the codes that sustain them
Mafia: Behind the Bloodshed follows filmmaker Max Serio into the structures and traditions of organised crime. Its four chapters concern the Russian Vory, the Japanese Yakuza, the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta and the Triads of New York's Chinatown. The series examines how loyalty, ritual, belonging and fear help criminal organisations maintain authority.
The production was filmed across Russia, Japan, Italy and the United States. Investigators, experts and former members provide first-hand testimony, combined with archive material and cinematic re-enactments. That mixture makes the programme an account assembled from several perspectives, including people who lived inside these worlds and people who pursued them.
