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In his captivating debut feature The Kingdom, Julien Colonna masterfully blends a coming-of-age tale with the gripping tension of a mafia drama. Set against the stunning backdrop of Corsica in the 1990s, Colonna offers a fresh perspective by placing the audience squarely in the shoes of a 15-year-old girl, Lesia, as she navigates her father’s dangerous underworld. Lesia’s father, Pierre-Paul, played by Saveriu Santucci, is the head of a mafia clan besieged by threats from all sides. The film opens with Lesia enjoying a carefree summer—swimming, laughing with friends, and flirting with a local boy—before her world is upended. She’s suddenly whisked away to her father’s secret hideout, marking the beginning of her initiation into a violent legacy she had only glimpsed from afar.Colonna’s restrained yet tense approach keeps much of the violence off-screen initially, allowing Lesia and the viewer to piece together the puzzle through overheard conversations and ominous glances. The audience learns about her father’s criminal empire just as she does, with a few moments of realization sparking her slow transformation. In her acting debut, the brilliant Ghjuvanna Benedetti shines as Lesia, whose innocent curiosity about her father turns to reluctant acceptance of his brutal ways. Lesia’s love for Pierre-Paul, despite his bloody choices, draws her deeper into his world, paralleling iconic mafia stories like The Godfather, but told through a more intimate, almost claustrophobic lens stunningly captured by cinematographer Antoine Cormier. Her journey from a sheltered girl to someone capable of facing down the same violence that surrounds her is quietly riveting.As father and daughter flee from assassins and authorities, their bond deepens, but Colonna’s film poses a haunting question: will Lesia follow in her father’s footsteps or break free? The film’s harrowing climax, set amid Corsica’s breathtaking but unforgiving landscape, leaves her fate tantalizingly open. The Kingdom is not just a crime thriller—it is an epic meditation on loyalty, family, and the cyclical nature of violence.Nicole Guillemet
