Fiore

Like Daphne, the young teenage girl in trouble in Fiore, Claudio Giovannesi's film could go in one of two directions. It could be a raw and hard-hitting drama about the problems faced by youths left with no direction, or it could take a more positive spin and show that there is always a chance and hope of redemption. Somehow, quite pleasantly and surprisingly, Giovannesi manages to take the second option by way of the first without giving away any of the essence or purpose of the film to an unrealistic outcome.

Daphne (Daphne Scoccia) has been left to fend for herself on the streets of Milan resorting to theft and petty crime to earn money, but eventually she gets caught stealing phones and has to spend some time in a prison for young offenders. We discover that Daphne has been in such institutions before and that her father has had problems of his own with the law. As he is trying to get back on his feet with a new family, he's not in a position to help Daphne get early probationary release, so Daphne has no option to make the best of it. An MP3 player makes life a little more bearable.

So too does an unlikely romance that Daphne strikes up with Josh (Josciua Algeri), a boy in the male wing of the prison who she first meets in the infirmary. Inevitably, in such a place, the romance is quite unconventional and Josh and Daphne have to resort to passing messages and sharing furtive looks through bars and rails. But finding something, finding someone, finding hope to cling onto is what is most important, and Daphne is determined to find a way, even if that means finding a way out of the prison.

Fiore is about youth and youthful passions. Daphne is not bad, she's just been neglected, left without direction and guidance on how to control those passions. It's so much more difficult to manage them within the rules, restrictions and sometimes cruel whims of prison officers, but it's important that those energies are channelled towards something positive. That's exactly what Claudio Giovannesi does in Fiore. He doesn't pretend that it's going to be plain sailing and doesn't ignore the reality of the difficulties faced by young people like Daphne and Josh, but he and Daphne Scoccia manage to tap into the true heart of the film's teenage tearaway and let that inner impulse for hope drive the film to a more optimistic - but by no means ideal - conclusion.