If you had despaired of Italian cinema ever regaining the lyricism of the Tavianis and Rossellini, I'm Not Scared will come as a welcome surprise. And if you seek a good yarn well spun, you won't be disappointed.

A lyrical throwback to such movies as René Clément's Forbidden Games (1952) and other works of the humanist European cinema of a half century ago.

The beautiful photography will have you booking flights to Sicily, while the unsentimental rites-of-passage drama can't fail to touch your heart.

"I'm Not Scared" suffers from ill-conceived staging and sluggish pacing. The film's theme that altruism and ignorance are punished is a careless postulate drawn from a kidnapping spree in Italy during the late '70s.