Tommi (Alessandro Morace) is an 11-year-old who lives with his sister Viola (Marta Nobili) and father Renato (writer-director Kim Rossi Stuart). It is a family that is struggling to stay afloat, with the father trying to work (as a cinematographer) and look after his kids, while at the same time trying to cope with debts. The children’s mother is an occasional, disturbing presence. Unreliable and fickle, she returns to the household for brief periods and then abandons her family for other relationships. All of this we see through the eyes of Tommi, who wants his family to be back together and has a growing, slightly envious relationship with a boy who has just moved into the same apartment block and who comes from a much more stable and affluent family. Using this situation as the basis for the drama, well-known actor (he starred in the recent Romanzo criminale and The Keys to the House) and now impressive debut director Kim Rossi Stuart fashions an honest, deeply affecting and heartfelt story. There are no easy answers in this all too believable scenario, and Along the Ridge is way beyond soap opera because of its intelligence, its use of the urban landscapes of Rome and the astonishing quality of the performances, especially that of Alessandro Morace, who plays Tommi in a completely natural and sensitive way.— Adrian Wootton.