Delta (2022)

The Florian family’s poachers, originally from Romania, engage in illegal and environmentally harmful fishing in their part of the Danube River. When the local police discover them, they emigrate to Italy to continue their illicit activity in the Po Delta. There, the poachers quickly find allies: they join forces with Elia, another poacher born and raised in Italy, who decides to fish illegally with them. A local bar owner has also hired them for their operation, paying them and keeping quiet about it. Meanwhile, at a Po fishing club, people discuss the recent discovery of numerous local fish poisoned with chemicals. Osso and his sister Nina, two local game wardens, investigate the matter but wrongly blame factory discharges, since they have dealt with similar situations in the past. One of the fishermen at the club already suspects the poachers, but at first nobody believes him. Osso and Nina investigate alongside the fishermen and eventually catch the poachers in the act. They decide to organize operations to gather conclusive evidence against them and put a stop to their activities. But complicating matters is Anna, a friend of Osso and Nina who works for the bar owner paying the Florians. She sees Elia come into the bar and falls in love with him. Anna follows Elia to the Florians’ house and, after sleeping with him, joins them and infiltrates the fishing club as a spy. The bar owner decides to end his partnership with the Florians and Elia, and refuses to pay them, even the money they owe him. Elia therefore goes to threaten him at his establishment, and the encounter ends in a shootout in which the bar owner is killed and Elia is wounded. Anna, who was at the establishment, helps Elia get away and escape, and the cameras capture everything. The police identify the culprits and raid the Florians’ house alongside Osso, Nina, and several fishermen, arresting everyone except Elia, who escapes with Anna by hiding in a fishmonger’s van that is about to leave. A little later, Osso, Nina, and some Carabinieri decide to block the road to prevent the two from escaping. They find the van, and Nina approaches it with a Carabiniere to search it, but as soon as they open the back, Elia shoots them both, killing them instantly. Osso hears the shot and runs to the van, where he finds Nina dead after bleeding out; meanwhile, Elia has already escaped again with Anna. As Osso, traumatized, bids farewell to his sister at a funeral held on the river, Elia violently sends Anna away, and she decides to turn herself in and be arrested. Special forces are deployed to search for Elia and capture him, but Osso, consumed by rage, also hunts him down and finds him before they do, catching him as he is drowning in the river while trying to escape. Osso takes Elia to an abandoned factory, where he imprisons and tortures him to avenge himself. As Osso completely loses his mind over his recent bereavement, Elia manages to free himself. In a final confrontation between the two, once again on the waters of the Po, Osso finally manages to shoot and kill him, avenging his sister’s death and putting an end to the local poaching.