The loss of innocence can be a frightening experience, especially for ten-year-old Michele (Giuseppe Cristiano), who discovers that another boy is being held captive in a deep hole next to an abandon farmhouse. Not only is it frightening to see a child your own age shackled, hungry and thirsty, living in filth, but when Michele realizes his own father may be a kidnapper, he hardly knows what to do.
That is the basis for Director Gabriele Salvatores' wonderful film from the best selling Italian novel, `Io non ho paura.' The film, shot almost entirely from the perspective of a youngster, was Italy's entry in this year's Academy Awards. Writer Niccolo Ammaniti first created the story, set among the rolling wheat fields of Calabria (the toe of the boot in extreme southwest Italy), as a screenplay. But he found a publisher who was interested in it as a book before he found a producer, so the novel was born. Later, he authored the screenplay from which Salvatores worked.
First, this is a story of secrets; in this case, the secrets kids keep from their parents, that parents keep from their children, that youngsters keep from each other. Michele's father Pino (a pitch-perfect performance from Dino Abbrescia), a cocky, domineering bantam of a character, is routinely away from his tiny rural village for mysterious and extended periods of time. But he always returns with small presents for the boy and his little sister. On this homecoming, he is full of secrets, which he shares with his wife Anna (a frightened, high-strung and convincing Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), and rough-hewn new friends who are always gathering conspiratorially around the family television. When Michele first finds the imprisoned Filippo (Mattia DiPierro), he keeps the discovery a secret, bringing the boy food and water, seemingly waiting for the right time to tell his parents. But soon, it becomes apparent that his parents are somehow involved. He tells a friend, who immediately betrays him, and soon the young prisoner and his potential savior find themselves in serious peril.
Salvatores, whose `Mediterraneo' won a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1992, cast `I'm Not Scared' from a pool of local children who had never acted before. In the main, he achieved a remarkable sense of realism from their performances, first by choosing kids with personalities and life experiences compatible with their characters, then shooting the film in sequence, only revealing the story to his performers a day at a time. The film is set in 1978, a time of an alarming number of kidnappings of children from wealthy, northern Italian families, by ransom-hungry people in the south. But it is much more a film of betrayal than it is of kidnapping, betrayal leading to the utter loss of innocence.
That is the basis for Director Gabriele Salvatores' wonderful film from the best selling Italian novel, `Io non ho paura.' The film, shot almost entirely from the perspective of a youngster, was Italy's entry in this year's Academy Awards. Writer Niccolo Ammaniti first created the story, set among the rolling wheat fields of Calabria (the toe of the boot in extreme southwest Italy), as a screenplay. But he found a publisher who was interested in it as a book before he found a producer, so the novel was born. Later, he authored the screenplay from which Salvatores worked.
First, this is a story of secrets; in this case, the secrets kids keep from their parents, that parents keep from their children, that youngsters keep from each other. Michele's father Pino (a pitch-perfect performance from Dino Abbrescia), a cocky, domineering bantam of a character, is routinely away from his tiny rural village for mysterious and extended periods of time. But he always returns with small presents for the boy and his little sister. On this homecoming, he is full of secrets, which he shares with his wife Anna (a frightened, high-strung and convincing Aitana Sánchez-Gijón), and rough-hewn new friends who are always gathering conspiratorially around the family television. When Michele first finds the imprisoned Filippo (Mattia DiPierro), he keeps the discovery a secret, bringing the boy food and water, seemingly waiting for the right time to tell his parents. But soon, it becomes apparent that his parents are somehow involved. He tells a friend, who immediately betrays him, and soon the young prisoner and his potential savior find themselves in serious peril.
Salvatores, whose `Mediterraneo' won a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar in 1992, cast `I'm Not Scared' from a pool of local children who had never acted before. In the main, he achieved a remarkable sense of realism from their performances, first by choosing kids with personalities and life experiences compatible with their characters, then shooting the film in sequence, only revealing the story to his performers a day at a time. The film is set in 1978, a time of an alarming number of kidnappings of children from wealthy, northern Italian families, by ransom-hungry people in the south. But it is much more a film of betrayal than it is of kidnapping, betrayal leading to the utter loss of innocence.