Io Non Ho Paura (I'm Not Scared) (Italy 2003) [108min.]
Written by Niccolo Ammaniti, directed by Garbriele Salvatore
In Italian with English subtitles
"Secrets. Betrayal. Murder"
A beautifully photographed (by Italo Petriccione), marvellously constructed, perfectly paced film that constantly wrong foots the viewer and rightly carried off a whole basket full of awards on the European circuit on it's original release.
Set among the pastoral idyll of Southern Italy, it's the story of Michele, a ten year old boy from the poorest of poor villages, who discovers Something Odd while out playing one day.
The initial shock of his discovery is superbly realised, even more so in that while grown ups watching may well dive for cover Michele faces this (and the other discoveries that he makes along the way) with a mixture of wild eyed wonder and stoic courage.
Giuseppe Cristiano as Michele, along with the other children of the village, is a "found" actor with no formal training and yet he brings to the role the sort of simple, natural style that any Method-fiend would kill for.
Initially leading the viewer to suppose they are watching the story of a foundling in the spirit of The Enigma Of Kasper Hauser or (more closely) Powder, the script twists and turns with a continuous and yet wholly believable series of pace changes and digressions.
The atmosphere of daily life interrupted by the unmentionable is held together throughout ; all of the performances are believable from the loving but troubled mother, through the various children, to the slightly sinister outsider Sergio who arrives at the family home with a motive I defy you to guess during the first third of the film.
A difficult film to write about without disclosing too much, however I guarantee that if you make it through the first third (and the scenery alone is worth making that effort for) then the film will grip and enthral you from that point on.
Superb and, for once, a worthy critical (if not commercial) success.
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