Rosi's first English-language film explores the long arm of the Mafia in a political thriller that starts in New York, then moves to Sicily for an impressionistic, sensual tour of the crumbling magnificence that is Palermo. James Belushi stars as an ambitious New York mayoral candidate, Carmine Bonavia, who hits upon legalization of drugs as a winning ticket until the Mafia in Sicily subtly but unmistakably hits on him. Distanced from his Sicilian roots, Carmine and his photojournalist bride (Mimi Rogers) honeymoon in the homeland he has never seen. There they encounter the mysteries and miseries of a culture both foreign and familiar, beautifully captured by Pasqualino De Santis's cinematography to bring visual reference to the whole of Rosi's work. A waltzing camera in a ball sequence is an homage to Visconti's The Leopard. But the honeymoon is clearly over for Italy in this film that decries a culture of violence nourished by the politics of drugs and neglect.