The film “Black Souls,” a morality tale of violence begetting violence among real-life mafia members in southern Italy, opens May 15 at the Mary Riepma Ross Media Arts Center.

The film, which is not rated, plays through May 21.

“Black Souls” is based on the actual events described in Gioacchino Criaco’s novel of the same name. The film vividly brings to life the inevitable tragic consequences when never-ending revenge and vendetta is passed down from generation to generation.

The story focuses in on the Carbone family that consists of three brothers — Luigi and Rocco, who are engaged in the family business of international drug trade, and Luciano, who has remained behind herding goats in their ancestral town of Africo in the remote Aspromonte mountains on the Ionic coast.

Luciano’s 20-year old son Leo has little respect for his father’s simple ways and instead idealizes his two mafioso uncles and their urban lifestyle. When Leo shoots up a local bar owned by a rival family, his reckless actions reignites a longstanding blood feud and sets off a tragic chain of events that violently grinds toward an inevitable bloody showdown for all involved.

For more information and show times, go to http://theross.org.