From the Film Maker...

The first things that caught my attention about this painting were the title and the way the two men are sat next to each other. I wondered which one was ‘the covetous’ one. I started to think about a story between the two men, asking myself who they might have been. What is their relationship? Is there money in the bag? Whose bag is it?

While the man on the right looks like his thoughts are elsewhere, his companion is more reactive, clenching his hand in a fist. The suggestion of a man whose mind is elsewhere made me think he could be deaf, with his companion using sign language. Other details then caught my attention making me decide that the two men were gangsters.

I started to play around with what I had: money in a bag, a deaf gangster, his assistant and a suggestion that someone had just left the room. I ended up with the story about an old, deaf Mafia Boss, and his sign language translator.
Giacomo La Monaca