(Le Royaume)

Julien Colonna’s debut feature masterfully blends a coming-of-age tale with the gripping dynamics of a mafia drama. Set in 1995 against the starkly beautiful Corsican coastline, we are introduced to fifteen-year-old Lesia (Ghjuvanna Benedetti) as she enjoys a carefree summer of partying with friends and flirting with a local boy. We soon learn, however, that Lesia is the daughter Pierre-Paul (Saveriu Santucci), the head of a notorious mafia family who is about to enter into a bloody war with a rival gang. Before Lesia knows what’s happening, she finds herself being driven to an isolated house where her father is holed up with his troops; as she gradually becomes aware of the breadth of her father’s criminal empire, she is initiated into a violent world that always existed on her periphery.

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Notes by David O’Mahony