Article: Darkly lyrical `Scared' is frightfully entertaining.(Arts and Lifestyle)

Byline: JAMES VERNIERE

"I'm Not Scared" ("Io Non ho Paura").

Rated R. In Italian with English subtitles. At the Embassy and Harvard Square cinemas.

Four stars (out of four)

Gabriele Salvatores' "I'm Not Scared" is a remarkably different thriller-cum-coming-of-age story. A cross between a Freud-ian fairy tale and a film noir, it also features - a la "City of God" - a cast of largely nonprofessional children who give gripping, natural performances.

At its heart, it's the story of a 10-year-old country boy on a collision course with the grim realities of life, a journey that reaches its end in an undeniably erotic epiphany ...

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