It was Pasolini who championed the plight of the Ragazzi putting their stories centre stage in his contribution to Italian realist cinema.
This film follows a number of others like it, which continue to highlight the violence and poverty in southern Italian cities and it's impact on the young as they grow up in such an environment.
Interestingly, the film is set in Palermo and uses (in a homage to Pasolini ?) real street boys as the protagonists. Considering the degree of Mafia control in Palermo, it must have been some feet to have pulled this off. What we have is more of the same hopelessness and violence seen in other recent films but with flashes of great character study mixed with glimpses of a city not usually prone to cinematic intrusion.
