Michelle Pennetta’s wistful docudrama is about two very different, charismatic young men leading parallel, impoverished lives on the fringes of Sicily — both dreaming of escaping their harsh realities to a better life.

The film follows Oscar who, with his older brother, helps their controlling father gather scrap metal from unauthorised dump sites. 

His dad is always telling him off and putting him down – calling him stupid and asking: “Why were you born without a brain?”

Meanwhile Stanley, a Nigerian refugee who works in a local church, relies on the parish priest to get him odd jobs to make ends meet, such as working on a vineyard and herding sheep.

His friend can’t understand why, when he has a two-year-long visa, he hasn’t fled abroad.

This is the third in a trilogy of films by Pennetta that explores a hidden side of Sicily that tourists never get to see. Shot like a fly-on-the-wall documentary without any interviews or voice-overs, it has surprisingly minimal dialogue.

Sicily is the third character in this compelling film, with its strikingly bleak, dry, barren landscape — reflective of Oscar and Stanley’s own lives. 

It is so beautifully and artistically shot that at times you are forgiven for believing you are watching a tense and unrelenting drama as the turmoil and frustration that Oscar is rocked by is mirrored in Stanley’s own story.

The film ends how it began: with a lingering haunting shot of Oscar asleep in his dad’s truck, no doubt dreaming of an idyllic life without his bullying father. 

Maria Duarte 

In cinemas