I'm Not Scared
Encyclopedia
I'm Not Scared is a 2003
film directed by Gabriele Salvatores
. Francesa Marciano and Niccolo Ammaniti
wrote the script based on Niccolò Ammaniti
's successful 2001 Italian novel Io non ho paura. The story is during Italy's anni di piombo, a time riddled with terrorism and kidnapping in the 1970s.
's novel Io non ho paura. Ammaniti got the idea for the book during a road trip to Puglia in the late 1990s. The novel won the 2001 Viareggio-Repaci Prize for Fiction. Since its publication in 2001, the novel sold nearly 700,000 copies and was published in over twenty languages. Jonathan Hunt wrote the English translation, which is available as hardcover and paperback by Canongate
, 2003.
The story is set in the fictional town of Acqua Traverse (literally water crossings) in the equally fictitious province of Lucignano (not to be confused with the real town of Lucignano
, Tuscany). The film was shot in Basilicata
and Puglia, an area of Italy where director Gabriele Salvatores
spent his youth. The primary set was in the countryside near Melfi
. Salvatores chose to challenge the kind of Italian film that typically becomes popular on the foreign market: "the beautiful ocean, the nostalgic past, mafia, pizza, and mandolins."
The story is loosely based on a true story of a kidnapped boy from Milan
during the anni di piombo in the 1970s, a time of turmoil and terrorism
in Italy. At the time, it was alarmingly common to kidnap people from the North and transport them to the South, where they would be hidden and sometimes killed unless the ransom was paid. 1978 was the year in which kidnappings in Italy reached an all-time peak of nearly 600. Although many kidnappings were politically motivated, children of wealthy northern families were targeted as well. It became such a problem that the Italian government decided to automatically freeze the assets of any families whose children had been kidnapped and contacted by people wanting a ransom to discourage this phenomenon.
According to Salvatores, the film is not primarily about kidnapping of the time but the mystery revolving around a kidnapping. The story is also about the journey and loss of innocence of a young boy. The majority of the actors in the film, especially the children, were local citizens with no filming or acting experience. Giuseppe Cristiano, who played the main character, had never appeared in a film before. The director spoke with psychologists about the impact of filming on the residents. To not raise hopes, the filmmakers explained to the parents of the child actors that this was not a ticket to Hollywood. The veteran actors Aitana Sanchez-Gijon
, Dino Abbrescia and Giorgio Careccia were cast in the adult roles.
The vivid scenery in this film is one of its most recognized characteristics. There are many views of fields and hills of wheat, this endless land being the backyard for the children of Acqua Traverse and the setting to their childhood adventures. The film used a strong primary color
scheme to portray the way children see the world, focussing on specific objects of interest with a close-up. The film score is primarily by a string quartet, that includes original music by Ezio Bosso, Quartetto d’Archi di Torino and Pepo Scherman as well as work by Canadian Michael Galasso.
1,615,328.
2003 in film
The year 2003 in film involved some significant events. Releases of sequels took place with movies like The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions, Pokémon Heroes, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines,...
film directed by Gabriele Salvatores
Gabriele Salvatores
Gabriele Salvatores , is an Italian Academy Award-winning film director and screenwriter.-Biography:Born in Naples, Salvatores debuted as a theatre director in 1972, founding in Milan the Teatro dell'Elfo, for which he directed several avant-garde pieces until 1989.In that year, he directed his...
. Francesa Marciano and Niccolo Ammaniti
Niccolò Ammaniti
Niccolò Ammaniti is an Italian writer. As a young Italian novelist, Ammaniti was part of the cannibalistic group, from the anthology Gioventù Cannibale by Daniele Brolli , for which he wrote a short novel together with Ricardo Shorts.He became noted in 2001 with the publication of Io non ho paura,...
wrote the script based on Niccolò Ammaniti
Niccolò Ammaniti
Niccolò Ammaniti is an Italian writer. As a young Italian novelist, Ammaniti was part of the cannibalistic group, from the anthology Gioventù Cannibale by Daniele Brolli , for which he wrote a short novel together with Ricardo Shorts.He became noted in 2001 with the publication of Io non ho paura,...
's successful 2001 Italian novel Io non ho paura. The story is during Italy's anni di piombo, a time riddled with terrorism and kidnapping in the 1970s.
Plot
The film takes place in 1978 in a fictional town called Acqua Traverse in Southern Italy during the hottest summer of the century. A ten-year-old boy named Michele (Giuseppe Cristiano) and a group of his friends set out across scorched wheat fields in a race. Michele's sister tags along but falls, breaking her glasses, and calls out to Michele, who runs back to her. Michele quickly appeases her worries over the glasses, and they continue running. Of the group, they are the last ones to arrive at the deserted farmhouse, and Michele, therefore, must pay up. However, the leader of the group, Skull, chooses the only girl in the group besides Michele's sister to pay up instead. He instructs her to reveal herself to the boys, and she looks to the others for help, but they refuse to meet her gaze. She is just about to do it when Michele pipes up that he was the one to arrive last and that he should be the one to pay. After Michele walks across a tall beam as punishment, the group is seen going home. As Michele and his sister ride home, she asks him where her glasses are, and he goes back to fetch them. While searching for these glasses in the farmhouse, Michele discovers a hole in the ground covered with a sheet of metal. He opens it and sees a leg; horrified, he runs away. The next day he returns to the site, throwing rocks at the leg. As he moves to pick up another rock, the camera pans to him, on the ground, searching around him in the dirt, where he finds another rock to throw. As the camera pans back into the hole, the leg is out of sight. Michele stares down as a zombie-like young boy stumbles out of the darkness and into view. Terrified, Michele hurries home once more. Michele visits the zombie-boy again, and finds that he is actually alive, however, he is very weak. Michele brings him water and food, making sure that his presence is not discovered by whoever put the boy there each time. As time goes on, Michele visits the boy several times, and we see that the boy is very confused and traumatized from his experiences. He believes himself to be dead and asks Michele if he is his guardian angel. One night, Michele sees on TV that a child named Filippo has been kidnapped from Milan, and the boy in the pictures shown looks just like the boy in the hole. Michele also realizes that his own father is involved in the kidnapping, as well as some other men in the town. He continues visiting Filippo (Mattia di Pierro) and one day he let him out for some hours and then put him back in the hole. One of the kidnappers caught him in the hole with Filippo and punches him. When Michele's father learns that he has been visiting Filippo, he threatens to beat him if he ever goes back to visit the kid again. Michele decides to help Filippo. Even though Filippo has been moved to another location, one of the boys tells Michele where he is. As the adults in the film are discussing who will kill Filippo, Michele sets out to find Filippo and save him. Michele's father draws the short match, and goes to kill Filippo. Instead, he ends up shooting his own son's leg. The film ends on a field after Filippo's rescue when helicopters arrive, where ostensibly Filippo is saved and Michele survives.Cast
- Giuseppe Cristiano as Michele Amitrano
- Mattia Di Pierro as Filippo Carducci
- Giulia Matturo as Maria Amitrano
- Aitana Sánchez-GijónAitana Sánchez-GijónAitana Sánchez-Gijón is a Spanish-Italian film actress.Best known for playing dramatic roles in Spain, Sánchez-Gijón is known in the United States for her portrayal of Victoria Aragon, a pregnant and abandoned Mexican-American winegrower's daughter who is helped by travelling salesman Paul Sutton ...
as Anna Amitrano - Dino Abbrescia as Pino Amitrano
- Giorgio Careccia as Felice Natale
- Diego AbatantuonoDiego AbatantuonoDiego Abatantuono is an Italian cinema and theatre actor, as well screenwriter.-Biography and career:Abatantuono was born in a popular quarter of the city to a father of Pugliese origin and a mother from Como...
as Sergio Materia - Fabio Tetta as Teschio Natale
- Stefano Biase as Salvatore Scardaccione
- Fabio Antonacci as Remo Marzano
- Adriana Conserva as Barbara Mura
- Susy Sánchez as Filippo's mother
- Antonella Stefanucci as Assunta
- Riccardo Zinna as Pietro Mura
- Michele Vasca as Candela
Production
I'm Not Scared is based on Niccolò AmmanitiNiccolò Ammaniti
Niccolò Ammaniti is an Italian writer. As a young Italian novelist, Ammaniti was part of the cannibalistic group, from the anthology Gioventù Cannibale by Daniele Brolli , for which he wrote a short novel together with Ricardo Shorts.He became noted in 2001 with the publication of Io non ho paura,...
's novel Io non ho paura. Ammaniti got the idea for the book during a road trip to Puglia in the late 1990s. The novel won the 2001 Viareggio-Repaci Prize for Fiction. Since its publication in 2001, the novel sold nearly 700,000 copies and was published in over twenty languages. Jonathan Hunt wrote the English translation, which is available as hardcover and paperback by Canongate
Canongate Books
Canongate Books is a Scottish independent publishing firm based in Edinburgh; it is named for The Canongate, an area of the city. It is most recognised for publishing the Booker Prizewinner Life of Pi...
, 2003.
The story is set in the fictional town of Acqua Traverse (literally water crossings) in the equally fictitious province of Lucignano (not to be confused with the real town of Lucignano
Lucignano
Lucignano is a comune in the Province of Arezzo in the Italian region Tuscany, located about 70 km southeast of Florence and about 25 km southwest of Arezzo...
, Tuscany). The film was shot in Basilicata
Basilicata
Basilicata , also known as Lucania, is a region in the south of Italy, bordering on Campania to the west, Apulia to the north and east, and Calabria to the south, having one short southwestern coastline on the Tyrrhenian Sea between Campania in the northwest and Calabria in the southwest, and a...
and Puglia, an area of Italy where director Gabriele Salvatores
Gabriele Salvatores
Gabriele Salvatores , is an Italian Academy Award-winning film director and screenwriter.-Biography:Born in Naples, Salvatores debuted as a theatre director in 1972, founding in Milan the Teatro dell'Elfo, for which he directed several avant-garde pieces until 1989.In that year, he directed his...
spent his youth. The primary set was in the countryside near Melfi
Melfi
Melfi is a town and comune in the Vulture area of the province of Potenza, in the Southern Italian region of Basilicata.-Geography:On a hill at the foot of Mount Vulture, Melfi is the most important town in Basilicata's Vulture, both as a tourist resort and economic centre.-Early history:Inhabited...
. Salvatores chose to challenge the kind of Italian film that typically becomes popular on the foreign market: "the beautiful ocean, the nostalgic past, mafia, pizza, and mandolins."
The story is loosely based on a true story of a kidnapped boy from Milan
Milan
Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...
during the anni di piombo in the 1970s, a time of turmoil and terrorism
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
in Italy. At the time, it was alarmingly common to kidnap people from the North and transport them to the South, where they would be hidden and sometimes killed unless the ransom was paid. 1978 was the year in which kidnappings in Italy reached an all-time peak of nearly 600. Although many kidnappings were politically motivated, children of wealthy northern families were targeted as well. It became such a problem that the Italian government decided to automatically freeze the assets of any families whose children had been kidnapped and contacted by people wanting a ransom to discourage this phenomenon.
According to Salvatores, the film is not primarily about kidnapping of the time but the mystery revolving around a kidnapping. The story is also about the journey and loss of innocence of a young boy. The majority of the actors in the film, especially the children, were local citizens with no filming or acting experience. Giuseppe Cristiano, who played the main character, had never appeared in a film before. The director spoke with psychologists about the impact of filming on the residents. To not raise hopes, the filmmakers explained to the parents of the child actors that this was not a ticket to Hollywood. The veteran actors Aitana Sanchez-Gijon
Aitana Sánchez-Gijón
Aitana Sánchez-Gijón is a Spanish-Italian film actress.Best known for playing dramatic roles in Spain, Sánchez-Gijón is known in the United States for her portrayal of Victoria Aragon, a pregnant and abandoned Mexican-American winegrower's daughter who is helped by travelling salesman Paul Sutton ...
, Dino Abbrescia and Giorgio Careccia were cast in the adult roles.
The vivid scenery in this film is one of its most recognized characteristics. There are many views of fields and hills of wheat, this endless land being the backyard for the children of Acqua Traverse and the setting to their childhood adventures. The film used a strong primary color
Primary color
Primary colors are sets of colors that can be combined to make a useful range of colors. For human applications, three primary colors are usually used, since human color vision is trichromatic....
scheme to portray the way children see the world, focussing on specific objects of interest with a close-up. The film score is primarily by a string quartet, that includes original music by Ezio Bosso, Quartetto d’Archi di Torino and Pepo Scherman as well as work by Canadian Michael Galasso.
Reception
Two days after Io non ho paura appeared at the Berlin Film Festival in February 2003, thirty-two countries had purchased the film. Miramax distributed the film in the U.S., where it grossed $United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
1,615,328.
Awards
- Berlin International Film FestivalBerlin International Film FestivalThe Berlin International Film Festival , also called the Berlinale, is one of the world's leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978...
2003: Nominated, Golden Berlin Bear, Gabriele Salvatores - European Film Awards 2003: Nominated, Best Cinematographer, Italo Petriccione
- Flaiano Film Festival 2003: Won, Audience Award for Best Actor, Giuseppe Crisiano, Won, Best Film Score, Ezio Bosso, Won, Best Screenplay, Niccolo Ammaniti
- Italian National Syndicate of Film JournalistsNastro d'ArgentoThe Nastro d'Argento is a movie award assigned each year, since 1946, for cinematic performances and production by Sindacato Nazionale dei Giornalisti Cinematografici Italiani, the association of Italian film critics...
2003: Won, Best Cinematrography, Italo Petriccione, Won, Best Director, Gabriele Salvatores, Won, Best Supporting Actor, Diego Abatantuono, Nominated, Best Producer, Nominated, Best Score, Ezio Bosso, Pepo Scherman, Nominated, Best Screenplay, Niccolo Ammanti, Francesca Marciano, Nominated, Best Sound, Maruo Lazzaro - David di Donatello AwardsDavid di DonatelloDavid di Donatello, named after Donatello's David, is a movie award assigned each year for cinematic performances and production by Ente David di Donatello, part of Accademia del Cinema Italiano. It is the Italian equivalent to the Academy Award. There are 24 categories as of 2006.- History :The...
2004: Nominated, Best Film, Maurizio Totti, RIccardo Tozzi, Gabriele Salvatores, Nominated, Best Music, Ezio Bosso, Nominated, Best Sound, Mauro Lazzaro, Nominated, Best Supporting Actor, Diego Abatanuono, Won, Best Cinematography, Italo Petriccione, Won, Gabriele Salvatores - Golden Trailer AwardsGolden Trailer AwardsThe Golden Trailer Awards is an annual awards show that honors achievements in motion picture marketing, including film trailers, posters and television advertisements.- Overview :...
2004: Nominated, Best Foreign Independent - Young Artists Awards 2004: Nominated, Best International Feature Film
- Bodil AwardsBodil AwardsThe Bodil Awards are the major Danish film awards given by Denmark's National Association of Film Critics . The awards are presented annually at a ceremony in the Imperial Cinema in Copenhagen. Established in 1948, it is one of the oldest film awards in Europe...
2005: Nominated, Best Non-American Film, Gabriele Salvatores - Edgar Allan Poe AwardsEdgar AwardThe Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...
2005: Nominated, Best Motion Picture Screenplay, Francesca Marciano, Niccolo Ammaniti