NON HO PAURA (DON'T BE SCARED)

Italy, 2003, 101 minutes, Colour.
Giuseppe Cristiano, Mattia di Pierro, Aitana Sanchez- Guion, Dino Abbrescia.
Directed by Gabriele Salvatores.

Salvatores' film Mediterrano won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language film in the early 90s. Audiences who have liked this film very much are talking about another nomination, at least.

This is a film about children, about innocence and loss of innocence and of cruel betrayals by parents. In the languid summer of 1978 (and Salvatores is expert in creating warm bright summers amid the cornfields outside a remote and very small and insular southern Italian village), the children play. Michele is a natural leader but he is also caring of his little sister. Going back to an abandoned farmhouse, he stumbles on a secret that has disastrous consequences for him and his family, especially his father who has just returned home, bringing with him a group of friends who are revealed as sinister.

This is the kind of film where it is best to know as little of the plot as possible so that the developments will come not only as a surprise but as a challenge and will pack some emotional power. It is a quality production and engrossing both in its story of the children and of the adults. It is also a film that honours moral integrity.

1. The Italian style of the film, mood, landscapes, characters and emotions? Music?

2. The 1970s, the state of the world, President Carter, the Red Brigade, developments in Europe, the frequency of kidnappings? A violent era?

3. The re-creation of that time, a small village, the children, families, work in the fields, television and the information, the helicopters and the police?

4. The structure of the film, the focus on the children, the surprise for Michele, the shock at the end with his father shooting him?

5. The credits, the cave, the title written on the wall, the sinister sense? The children and their play, the holidays, Michele going back to help his sister, Salvatore and his dominating the group, the fat girl and her losing, the judgments against her, Salvatore's boss, asking her to show herself, Michele his and volunteering, walking the plank? The peer pressures, the group and their being together?

6. The visuals of the fields, the crops? The roads and the tracks, the bikes? The weather? Michele going back for the glasses, finding the hole and finding the boy?

7. The family home, the father away, his return from overseas, humiliation of his son, the arm-wrestling? The mother and her trying to cope, the little sister? The visitors, Michele overhearing the discussions, the television? Sergio and the bathroom, the interaction? Sergio taking over, tension in the house?

8. The television and the information about the kidnapping, Filippo's mother and her plea, the threat of cutting off the little boy's ear? Michele secretly going to talk to him? Filippo seeing Michele as his guardian angel? His inability to open his eyes, thinking that he was dead, that his parents were dead? Michele and his urging him to open his eyes, friendship, exasperation? Taking him out of the hole, their playing in the fields, rolling in the crops? Lying basking in the sun? Their being caught?

9. The tough thug, his workout, confrontation with Michele, hitting him, the attack on his mother? The later confrontation with Sergio and his not wanting to kill Filippo?

10. Everyone in the village knowing what was going on, Michele and his reaction to his mother, father, to the others? The reality of the kidnapping, the plan, everybody being in on it?

11. Salvatore and his toys, the gift, the offer to swap, wanting the van? Offering to tell the secret? Salvatore and his giving information to the thug, getting the driving lesson? Michele's antagonism, their making peace, learning that they had moved Filippo?

12. Filippo, shy, ten years old, the experience of death, his fears? The rescue by Michele and his climbing over the gate, urged to run away?

13. The helicopters, the first raid, everybody in the town going to the house, discussions? The children playing, the rain, Filippo gone? The return home, nothing to eat for the children, the tomatoes, their mother urging them to go to sleep?

14. Michele, trying to rescue, the dogs, the pigs, getting Filippo out, the group deciding what to do, drawing the matches for the short match, the irony of the father shooting his son, his grief? Sergio, the helicopters, surrender? Filippo returning, stating that Michele was shot for him?

15. The portrait of family, pressures, the effect of the abduction on the parents and their children? The emotional reality of the story, melodrama, a child's point of view, bewilderment, a child's moral perspective?