Director Leonardo di Costanzo outlines a small, large mosaic that pushes us to delve into the maze of the true nature of man, the confrontation that makes everyone prisoners of the same, claustrophobic sense of alienation.
Prison is increasingly proving to be the place where hope is fatally annihilated, affecting both the inmates and the guardians themselves.
Led by the more than excellent Toni Servillo and Silvio Orlando, the two groups find themselves sharing the miserable space in which they find themselves in an even more "close-knit" way, due to a bureaucratic misunderstanding that postpones the event that would have marked a turning point for everyone to an indefinite date.
The "natural" order is increasingly questioned, leading the jailers to comply with the demands of the inmates, while strictly maintaining the necessary physical and moral distances.
All this starts an inner journey which, without revealing more than necessary, leads everyone to open up and recognize their humanity, constantly endangered and apparently buried under the most varied crimes that seem to determine a more than definitive sentence.
A formally flawless title, in which every aspect is enhanced to the fullest, managing in particular, thanks to effective shots, to magnify the apparently small space of the isolated prison, in the middle of the vast valley that completely isolates it from the outside world.
The only flaw I feel to point out is the invasive soundtrack, in my opinion too emphasized in crucial points without a real reason.
But in the end, this is an effective and certainly interesting study of human relationships capable of arousing very strong considerations and revealing, like its prisoners, the most hidden and surprising sides of man.
Prison is increasingly proving to be the place where hope is fatally annihilated, affecting both the inmates and the guardians themselves.
Led by the more than excellent Toni Servillo and Silvio Orlando, the two groups find themselves sharing the miserable space in which they find themselves in an even more "close-knit" way, due to a bureaucratic misunderstanding that postpones the event that would have marked a turning point for everyone to an indefinite date.
The "natural" order is increasingly questioned, leading the jailers to comply with the demands of the inmates, while strictly maintaining the necessary physical and moral distances.
All this starts an inner journey which, without revealing more than necessary, leads everyone to open up and recognize their humanity, constantly endangered and apparently buried under the most varied crimes that seem to determine a more than definitive sentence.
A formally flawless title, in which every aspect is enhanced to the fullest, managing in particular, thanks to effective shots, to magnify the apparently small space of the isolated prison, in the middle of the vast valley that completely isolates it from the outside world.
The only flaw I feel to point out is the invasive soundtrack, in my opinion too emphasized in crucial points without a real reason.
But in the end, this is an effective and certainly interesting study of human relationships capable of arousing very strong considerations and revealing, like its prisoners, the most hidden and surprising sides of man.