Once You're Born You Can No Longer Hide

Marco Tullio Giordana's socially conscious Italian film is broken up into two distinct parts. The first begins as the story of ten-ish year old boy who is the son of loving and compassionate, well to do parents. Towards the beginning, he is confronted by a seemingly homeless man who mutters something to him in an African language. We witness the boys everyday life until he and his father rent a yacht to go sailing. The second part begins when the boy slips overboard one night while his father thinks he's tucked safely in bed. After drifting for awhile, he is rescued by a boat stuffed full of refugee's on their way to Italy and captained by a couple of mercenaries. Here is where the films heart takes over as we and the boy witness the plight of the refugee's. He befriends a brother and sister from Romania. Fortunately, Giordana allows for complexities within his compassion as a darker side is revealed on some of the characters. And eventually we even learn that those mysterious words spoken by the homeless man at the beginning actually translate to the title of the film. It's difficult to describe, and is no masterpiece, but it is directed by a steady hand and a big heart that doesn't overpower its brain.