I'm Not Scared (2003)This is just slightly offbeat enough it might grab you good. And the main character, a 10 year old boy, is really effective—believable, compelling, complex. That the movie isn't a masterwork might not matter—it has parts, and aspects, that are really strong.The concept is basic—some back country thugs have gotten themselves into a kidnapping, and they aren't really quite good enough at the task to follow through. So the child is captive in a hole in the ground. That's weird and awful enough to get your attention. And it comes to light slowly, as the main character stumbles on this fact and then tries to befriend the captive boy without the kidnappers finding out.Which of course isn't going to happen. The movie really gets intense in the last half hour. Before that it is slow to the point of too slow for my taste—lots of scenes of the kinds playing in the dry loneliness of some part of Italy made of wheat fields and little else. It's set in the late 1970s, so there is no real technology involved—no cell phones, no computers. Just an old television that the group gathers around for the news once a night.The plot actually isn't what carries the movie, though I'm sure it's necessary as a vehicle for some. What works best is the whole situation—the simple folk with big ideas about the world in this beautiful but utterly isolated (and unnamed) place. If you tire of endless scenes of the kids running or biking through the great landscape, you realize the director didn't quite have much else to work with. A better sense of the kid's family, beyond the kind of rough clichés presented, would have given the movie needed depth.As it is, it's strangely simple, and yet the simplicity is what matters, and what made like it as much as I did.

With its great plot, this is one of the best foreign films out there. It achieves what can't be done in America with its artistry, openness, sorrow and desire; all while sometimes being very simple. "I'm Not Scared" has convincing characters, a realistic feel, great acting, and is always interesting. Do not ignore seeing this movie! You should not regret watching it in the slightest. It is a movie not just worth seeing, but worth owning in my opinion. It saddens me to know that most people probably have never seen this film or read the book, which encouraged me to write this review. If you are looking for a movie to add to your watchlist, look no further.

In beautiful southern Italy, 1978, sensitive ten-year-old Giuseppe Cristiano (as Michele) plays with his friends, in a hot, deserted area (likely forbidden by their parents). After some bullying games, they leave; then, young Mr. Cristiano goes back to retrieve his little sister's broken glasses. Alone, he discovers a secret door to an underground pit, containing kidnapped Mattia Di Pierro (as Filippo). At first, Cristiano is frightened by the trapped figure. But, he goes back and begins to communicate with the other boy.Living in a hole has driven young Mr. Di Pierro a little crazy. He thinks he must be dead, and Cristiano is his "guardian angel". Eventually, a terrifying secret about Di Pierro brings the kidnapped boy closer and closer to Cristiano… "I'm Not Scared" (in English) features great locations, beautifully photographed and directed by Italo Petriccione and Gabriele Salvatores. The collaborators are certainly up to their award-winning "Mediterraneo" (1991). On the down side, Mr. Salvatores allows "Io non ho paura" to lose itself in slumbering artiness when it could be both beautiful and (more) suspenseful. Not showing "learned" acting, Cristiano and the natural young performers are outstanding.******* Io non ho paura (2/8/03) Gabriele Salvatores ~ Giuseppe Cristiano, Mattia Di Pierro, Diego Abatantuono, Dino Abbrescia

Admiration for Gabriele Salvatores' "I'm Not Scared" abounds here, and it comes from several angles, but there is one important point that seems to have gone missing. And that is Michele's singularly un-male identity. Since I do not know Salvatores' work, I don't know his intentions, but there's no mistaking this very rare result.Michele seems to have a gut instinct about power abuse. And specifically that of the male sort. Twice he intervenes to halt sexist attacks--once on a girl pal, and once on his mother. He does not tell himself it is her business, or his fun, or his right--he acts on what he knows. And his whole rescue mission on behalf of Filippo is in a similar vein, because it is a group of men (blackmailers) who put this young boy in such a vulnerable, life-threatening position. What is convincing about this is that none of his risky responses seem individual or heroic, but rather social/moral in nature. In his public acts, one senses the influence and courage of his mother, Filippo, his sister and others.And what is remarkable in all this is that Michele has not one masculine impulse. He arm wrestles his father once, but it is hardly a power struggle, and he accepts help from his sister to achieve "victory." He has a convincing, unshowy, and true affection for Filippo, his mother, his sister, and withholds this affection from those whose actions and words have a male cast. He's also unselfconsciously thin and solitary; has an unsentamentalized relationship with nature; and although very much a part of a social web, shows no signs of male bonding (based in female exclusion).My unapologetic wish is that more Michele's will populate the silver screen--but I'm not holding my breath in anticipation.