Can a retired mafia boss survive an ambush of twenty-two bullets and find peace?
In short: In the 2010 French action film 22 Bullets, Charly Matteï attempts to leave his violent past behind for a quiet life with his family. However, his retirement is shattered when a hit squad leaves him for dead. Against all odds, he survives, sparking a brutal quest for vengeance and redemption.
Directed by Richard Berry and released in 2010, 22 Bullets is a gritty exploration of a man caught between his former criminal life and his desire for domestic tranquility. The narrative is loosely inspired by the life of Jacky Imbert and draws from the 2007 novel L'Immortel by Franz-Olivier Giesbert. The film’s production spanned several French locations, beginning in Marseille in February 2009, moving to Avignon in April, and concluding with an eight-week shoot in Paris.
The protagonist, Charly Matteï, is a retired mafia boss who has handed his operations to his friend, Tony Zacchia. His peaceful existence is violently interrupted in a parking lot ambush where he is struck by 22 bullets. While he miraculously survives, the attack triggers a chain of events that forces him back into the underworld. Initially, Matteï attempts to navigate the situation without further bloodshed, but this restraint proves fatal when his friend Karim is murdered. This betrayal pushes Matteï to hunt down the eight-man hit squad, promising to eliminate them one by one.
The film also introduces Marie Goldman, a determined policewoman investigating the initial shooting. Goldman is haunted by the unsolved murder of her own husband, a case she suspects involves Zacchia’s criminal network. As the plot unfolds, the paths of the vengeful gangster and the conflicted officer converge. Matteï eventually secures his son’s safety through a tense deal with Goldman, trading incriminating evidence of Zacchia’s money laundering for his freedom. The resolution reveals that one of the original shooters had intentionally missed Matteï, a mercy granted by his own lawyer. Ultimately, the film concludes with Matteï finding a sense of closure, finally walking away from his past to live in peace with his family, no longer forced to look over his shoulder.
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Sources
- Summary by Intellect · source: 22 Bullets
- Also: 22 Bullets
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