The film’s title scrawled on a cave wall cuts to a golden wheat field, swaying in the hot summer sun, with the images of children furiously running. At first glance it seems that they are trying to escape some danger but then it quickly becomes apparent that they are in the midst of a child’s game. It is pure irony that the peril does arrive later.

Ten-year old Michele is part of this rag-tag group, who endure the hot summer of 1978 in the Basilicata region of southern Italy by playing endless games of daring and speed. His childhood naivete is shaken when he discovers a hole—near his gang’s play site¾ where a small boy is being held captive. Slowly he comes to discover that this mysterious secret involves his entire family.

Easily one of the best films of the year, "I’m Not Scared" manages to show the purity of childhood through Michele’s life, as well as the growing horror of his new knowledge.

Never losing this young boy’s point-of-view, the film keeps its eye on the world of a ten year-old—as he runs around in his underwear, arm wrestles his macho father and giggles as his mother tickles him. Even when he finds the trapped Filippo, he still behaves like a man-child, telling him he has to get back home "to set the table." In bed at night with his body tented by the sheets, he makes up crazy stories about the boy in the hole. When he rides his bike to the hidden spot, he lifts his arms off the handlebars as if on a joy ride. Guiseppe Cristiano is magnificent as Michele, embodying these conflicting emotions with a realism and believability that is astounding in such a young performer.

Based on the novel by Niccolo Ammaniti, who also wrote the screenplay, "I’m Not Scared" boasts glowing cinematography by Italo Petriccione, a familiar artist in director Gabriele Salvatore’s filmography, which includes the Oscar winning "Mediterraneo."

The close-up of an ant on Michele’s eyelid, the jolting images of Filippo’s muddied, blinded face, the foreground shot of Maria’s huge missing glasses are just a sampling of the visual feast that Petriccione serves up in this mesmerizing tale of suspense.

But it is the wheat fields—always moving, always golden—that become a character through his camera lens. A playground, a track field, a hiding place¾ the wheat fields are a constant presence. When the reapers appear and mow the fields to ground level, they act as grim reapers in the subsequent terrifying scenes. With nowhere to hide, totally exposed—like Cary Grant in the famous Hitchcock "North by Northwest" crop duster scene—the characters are cornered into the story’s sobering denouement.

Some films are forgettable; others linger long enough for a brief post-viewing discussion. The images projected in "I’m Not Scared" are deeply seared in my memory.