“Young men’s anger — the whole world is based on it,” the Corsican mob boss Pierre-Paul tells his daughter, Lesia, as gang warfare on the island reaches the point where people’s heads are being blown off. That may be true, but the trick of this haunting French-language drama is focusing on Pierre-Paul, one of the older men who stoke that anger, and Lesia, the teenage girl who could one day take over.
Lesia hasn’t seen her fugitive dad for some time and jumps at the chance to hunt wild boar together and spend time in a safe house, where she eavesdrops as he and his cronies plot their revenge against a rival family. Daughter and father are played by untrained actors, found after a long casting process in Corsica, and both are excellent. Ghjuvanna Benedetti’s Lesia has a captivating blend of naivety and steel while Saveriu Santucci tempers Pierre-Paul’s ruthlessness with a careworn humanity.
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Julien Colonna, the director, is Corsican and knows the brutal world his film depicts and its costs. There’s a mythical sting to the scene in which two young hitmen return after whacking their target, exchanging hugs with their elders and taking a purifying dip in the sea.
★★★★☆
15, 112min
In cinemas from Aug 8
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