I'm Not Scared

What's the Plot?

1978. Southern Italy. Something sinister is lurking under the surface of 10 year-old Michele's (Giuseppe Cristiano) idyllic summer. The usual routines of childhood games, where Michele and his fellow small-village friends pass the long hours away, finds them by an abandoned farm house, far from home. There, Michele has to pay the forfeit since he arrived at the house after everyone else, but in doing so, he loses his little sister's glasses. Heading back to the farm house on his own to find them, else face the wrath of his mother, Anna (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon), Michele comes across a boarded-up hole in the ground. Being a typical, inquisitive 10 year-old, Michele lifts up the cover to find not gold and hidden treasure, but what appears to be a human foot protruding from a pile of rags. The next time he braves a look down the hole, he finds that the foot belongs to something that is definitely alive down there in the gloom. The more that Michele finds out about the "person" in the hole, the more he uncovers with regards to everyone in his life in his village. Everyone is fast becoming a suspect and all the adults seem to be watching the news reports with avid interest, especially with regards to the disappearance of a child named Filippo (Mattia Di Pierro)

The Review

Any sub-titled film has to have a huge fan-fare surrounding it to make it to cinema screens nowadays, let alone actually make any money . The likes of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Amelie and the soon-to-be-released Hero have helped the foreign film contingent, but they're still greeted with an air of apprehension from alot of the general public. I'm Not Scared will not help the cause of the foreign film's plight, but nor will it hinder it for those who are sensible, or brave, enough to give it a go . Essentially, it's a "coming-of-age" flick, along the lines of Stand By Me, except that this time there's no journey to see a dead body.

Here, the "body" is very much alive, and for the first 30 minutes of the film's short running time - 101 minutes - you, along with the main character of Michele, are left guessing on just who the boy is down in the hole, and even more intriguingly, why is he down in the hole. Once the why becomes apparent, admittedly the film loses abit of it's momentum, since it's then that you realise that this is actually a very clever "coming-of-age" flick. Smart, but a "rites-of-passage" story none-the-less. Most of it centres around Michele, and thankfully Cristiano who plays him, is able to take the burden of such a role. His increasing insolence to his parents once he suspects them to be involved somehow, is delightful as is his relationship with his younger sister, who steals all the great lines.

"Can you tell them to shout a little softer," she tells her mother as the adults argue next door to their bedroom is a gem. The scenery throughout is gorgeous, with subtle hints laid down enforcing the whole "rites of passage" theme - combine harvesters mow down the innocent wheat that surrounds the village and abandoned farm house (the loss of youth's innocence, anyone?) - and with it's little twist of an ending, is really worth seeing.

STEVE'S SCORES