The Kingdom

Corsica, the early nineties. Lesia is fifteen and on her summer holiday. A man comes and takes her to a house. Her father is there. Pierre-Paul has been wanted for years; he hides with his men and the girl rarely sees him. A reckoning starts on the island; another group has moved and names are being killed one by one. The father has to keep his daughter with him. They change houses, stay in the forest, and Lesia sees at close hand what her father does. Julien Colonna directs. Ghjuvanna Benedetti plays Lesia. It is a French production and largely in Corsican. The film was shown in Un Certain Regard at Cannes and is the director's first feature. The point of view sits with the girl; the violence stays mostly off screen and the viewer sees only what she sees. The matter it treats is not crime but the family bond; the narrative neither legitimises the father nor condemns him entirely. The island is inside the narrative; the sea, the forest and the narrow roads are constantly in view. The narrative rests on a historical period; the conflicts between groups in Corsica in those years are the background. The ending is not sentimental and the narrative explains nothing. Who it is for: viewers who like European crime drama and quiet narratives. Who it is not for: the pace is slow, little happens, and the ending uncertain.