‘La Scorta’

Ricky Tognazzi’s taut, expertly made 1994 political-thriller confronts Italy’s institutional corruption with energy and sensitivity. Slickly directed in the best sense, it offers more than the expected squealing tires on rain-slick pavement. Set in Sicily, where the Italian government and the Mafia have been engaged in a bitter power struggle, “La Scorta” is freely adapted from the experiences of a real-life investigating magistrate and the escort of carabinieri, or state police, designated to protect his life. The film focuses on a pair of carabinieri (Claudio Amendola, left, and Enrico Lo Verso, right), part of a detail to a magistrate (Carlo Cecchi, second from right, with Ricky Memphis) who has vowed to clean up the city of Trapani (Cinemax Wednesday at 8 p.m.).