An incisive look into the mafia’s presence in Corsica, Julien Colonna’s “The Kingdom” is an even-handed debut, filtering a war between rival gangs through the prism of a coming-of-age narrative. While well aware of the tropes associated with mafia films, Colonna’s decision to place his point of view alongside Lesia (Ghjuvanna Benedetti in her first role) creates a fascinating window into connections between real and created families. While, perhaps, leaning too much into the genre in its final moments, it’s nevertheless an exciting debut from the Corsican director and his star.
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In fact, outside of a prologue that sees Lesia gutting a boar that she just killed with her father Pierre-Paul (Savreiu Santucci, also in his first role), the film initially begins as a straight bildungsroman. Centered around the fifteen-year-old’s impending summer, including flirtations with local boys and hanging out with friends, the only hints of her connection to the mafia lifestyle come after she’s escorted to a remote part of the island to be with her father, whom she doesn’t live with. While not exactly oblivious to what her father does, it soon becomes clear that Lesia doesn’t have a full understanding of how high he is in the mafia hierarchy and how violent the escalating feud with rival factions has gotten.
But, it appears that a botched car bomb has disrupted the relative peace that the factions have been living in, and going off of little information, Pierre-Paul has declared war. Lesia has, then, been summoned to be with her father not out of a want to see her, but fear that someone could get to her. These moments might sound cliché, especially when considered alongside similar mafia films, but Colonna makes the wise choice to never really move away from Lesia’s point of view.
At first, she feels welcomed into the fold, happy to be part of her father’s inner circle and his makeshift family. But, she quickly realizes that she’s perhaps out of her depth, especially after a phone call to her Aunt ends violently. Quickly, she’s forced on the run with her father and his ever-dwindling number of loyal soldiers. From there, Colonna and co-writer Jeanne Herry narrow in on the familial relationship, as father-daughter is forced to connect over escalating violence. It recalls, to a certain extent, the central road-movie relationship in “Road to Perdition,” without that film’s need to humanize its paternal figure. Colonna may push the violence towards the film’s periphery, but that’s only because it’s so attuned to Lesia and her understanding of the world.
It’s also a film that clearly understands Pierre-Paul is not a good person if perhaps not even a good gangster. His decision-making is often rash and based on second and third-hand knowledge. But he also cares about Lesia, even outside of the material concerns of keeping her alive. A conversation the two share late in the film over dinner serves to humanize him in a way that also plainly telegraphs his fate. It also showcases the transformation that Lesia has undertaken throughout. If she began with a detached understanding of the violence that her father committed, by the film’s brutal end, she’s more entrenched in it than ever before. It’s a predictably cyclical and cynical ending, one that understands the bond these two have forged is rooted in the violence that Pierre-Paul has committed.
Benedetti and Santucci are, frankly, marvelous in their debuts, keenly playing up the long-held distance and growing closeness that the father and daughter begin to feel. Despite their status as non-professionals, “The Kingdom” acts as a coming-out for the two actors who will surely be seen in more films to come. Similarly, Colonna showcases a sustained ability to mix tones and bring fresh ideas to an over-saturated genre. [B+]