As God Commands

A film set in a town in northern Italy. Rino is unemployed and an alcoholic. He is close to a far-right circle, keeps weapons at home, and lives with his thirteen year old son. Cristiano loves his father. He causes trouble at school, a social worker comes to the house, and taking the boy away is being discussed. Rino has a friend. Quattro Formaggi carries brain damage from an accident, speaks to nobody, and is building a nativity scene in his house. One night a plan is made. A cash machine will be pulled out and the money shared. A storm breaks the same night. From there the film runs across one night. A river, a forest road, an accident, and a girl who goes missing. What the narrative is interested in is not crime but attachment: Cristiano knows what his father is and protects him anyway; the film neither approves of the relationship nor condemns it. The town is inside the narrative. There is no work, the factory has closed, and the young have nowhere to go; the narrative takes its violence from that ground. The inquiry near the end is hard. The narrative gives the audience the truth early and takes its tension from who learns it and when. The source is a novel by Niccolò Ammaniti; the book had won Italy's best known literary prize and the author worked on the screenplay. The film was named Best Film at Italy's principal cinema awards. Filippo Timi, Elio Germano and Alvaro Caleca are in the cast. Gabriele Salvatores directed. Who it is for: anyone who likes hard Italian provincial drama. Who it is not for: anyone looking for sympathy; none of the characters is easy to like and the ending is merciless.