I'm Not Scared
2004
Italian director Gabriele Salvatores' (MEDITERRANEO) masterfully directs this eerie and engrossing suspense thriller involving a 10-year-old boy who lives in rural southern Italy. It is summertime and Michele (Guiseppe Cristiano) is free to spend the long sunny days riding his bike and running through the wheat fields. In fact, .. Read more
| Starring | Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Dino Abbrescia, Giorgio Careccia |
|---|---|
| Director | Gabriele Salvatores |
| Genres | Drama, Thriller, World Cinema |
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I'm Not Scared
Italian director Gabriele Salvatores' (MEDITERRANEO) masterfully directs this eerie and engrossing suspense thriller involving a 10-year-old boy who lives in rural southern Italy. It is summertime and Michele (Guiseppe Cristiano) is free to spend the long sunny days riding his bike and running through the wheat fields. In fact, the wheat could be considered Michele's costar, as it often consumes the entire scope of the screen showing how Michele plays, hides, and ponders life in the vast expanses of flowing yellow stalks. Because there are only a few other children in the village Michele often plays alone, and one day he discovers a hole in the ground, obscured by wheat, where a boy his age is chained and imprisoned. The boy has clearly been starved and mistreated, yet Michele approaches him fearlessly and attempts to make friends with him. With the dreaminess that is a 10-year-old's truest treasure, Michele doesn't ask too many questions, nor does he draw conclusions about why the boy is in the hole, or who put him there. Through the expressions on young Michele's face, viewers can read his light questioning of human existence, human morality, and human rights. However, as the film draws on, subtly revealing shocking secrets about the adults in Michele's village, the beauty of this utterly simple yet deadly powerful plot come clear. I'M NOT SCARED is a moving film built on crystal clear images of the Italian sun, sky, and wheat fields; strangely offset by its startling loss-of-innocence story.
| Starring | Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, Dino Abbrescia, Giorgio Careccia |
|---|---|
| Director | Gabriele Salvatores |
| Studio | WALT DISNEY STUDIOS HOME ENTERTAINMENT |
| Run time | DVD: 1 hr 41 mins |
| Certificate | |
| Genres | Drama, Thriller, World Cinema |
| Language | DVD: Italian |
| Subtitles | DVD: English |
| Released | DVD: 06 Dec 2004 Production year: 2004 |
| Format | DVD |
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Critics' reviews
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A stunning shot of sunshine on a sea of golden corn contrasts markedly with the dark secret that ten-year-old Michele (Giuseppe Cristiano) discovers in a hole beneath the ruined farmhouse where he and his friends play. At first he thinks the foot glimpsed beneath some rags must belong to a body, then he realises it is a boy chained up. I'm Not Scared starts off as an offbeat horror, contrasting the beauty of the southern Italian countryside and the innocence of its protagonist with a mood of genuine unease and foreboding. All too often in Hollywood horror films, the viewer knows what is about to happen, but here the audience has no more idea than Michele, which is what makes the early scenes so riveting. The film evolves into something that is part thriller, part family drama and part rite-of-passage, with just a nod in the direction of Christian allegory. Director Gabriele Salvatores just about holds it all together, aided by some wonderfully evocative cinematography.
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Most helpful member's review
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39 out of 48 people found this review helpful
A hole worth discovering.
It's fair to say that I was expecting an altogether different kind of movie going experience from the Italian thriller ' I'm not scared '. The fact remains though that I came away from the film feeling somewhat uplifted, somewhat pleasantly surprised and perhaps even just a little bit charmed. Strange I know, coming from a movie which I had always imagined was a horror film.
But take away the, in the outset at least, somewhat misleading title and you are left with a rather enchanting tale of kidnap, ransom and brutal amendment, seen through the eyes of a ten year old boy. The cinematography is quite stunning, the performances excellent (especially those of the young leads) and to be quite honest I couldn't find a single fault.
The film makers could have taken a different path to the one they chose but for me, the path they chose was a good one. I'm Not Scared wasn't what I was expecting, but it was a path worth taking. -
Most recent members' review
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9 out of 10 people found this review helpful
Never as good as the book...
...having read the book that this film was based on, I knew what to expect. They did well, and stayed pretty faithful to the book, but as is usual with movies of novels, it lost a little bit in translation to film.
A couple of jumpy moments near the beginning were quite unnerving, but overall this film is really a drama, led by some SUPERB performances by children. The lead role of Michele was superbly believable and his sister, Maria, was just cute as can be!
One thing I think the movie lacked was a bit of intrigue - the truth of what had happened comes out a bit too early, but I felt the same when I read the book. I would've liked to have kept guessing a bit longer.
Overall though, a good, strong drama/thriller with a satisfying, if not too dramatic, climax. -
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Italian director Gabriele Salvatores' (MEDITERRANEO) masterfully directs this eerie and engrossing suspense thriller involving a 10-year-old boy who lives in rural southern Italy. It is summertime ... -