Cultural context looks at the society the characters live in and at how their culture can affect their behaviour and their opportunities. From my study of the gripping film “I’m not scared” directed by Gabriele Salvatores, I have gained valuable insights in and through the film’s protagonist Michele. I strongly agree with the above statement that central characters can be successful or unsuccessful in challenging aspects of cultural context and I believe that young Michele certainly challenges aspects such as power and evil within his world. “I’m not scared” is set in a desolate town in Southern Italy where poverty and casual violence are extremely prominent. Perhaps it is this desolation and monotony that drives the people of Acqua Traverse to make the poor moral choices we see them make throughout the film.

In the opening scene of this enticing film, we see Michele challenge his own generation. It is extremely evident from the onset that this young protagonist has a mature moral awareness, something that is not valued in the world he lives in. He challenges the gender imbalance and the ill treatment of Barbara by standing up the the young ring leader, Skull, and, although they are of similar age, the two could not be more different. Michele challenges the power Skull holds, I believe very effectively, as he prevents the exploitation of Barbara. This display of moral awareness and not conforming with his friends views shows to us the viewers how at such a young age knowing right from wrong is possible and how Michele challenged the aspect of friendship with cultural context. (see above) I find Michele to be a very noble young boy and hold great respect for him and the choices he makes at such a tender age.

The role of casual violence within this era is particularly prominent and this, I feel, plays a role in the children’s views. Children learn from those older than them. They only know what they are told. This is why I find Michele to be fascinating as, although he learns like the other children, he seems to hold a far more mature outlook on life than the people around him.

As the film progressed we saw Michele grow as a young boy. His moral awareness causes him the inability makes him unable to understand the world around him and how his active mind led him to piece together his father’s involvement in the kidnapping of Filippo. After being caught visiting Filippo by one of the many involved in this callous abduction, we see Michele once again in his bedroom. (Note the mistake here: the sentence literally means that we were caught visiting Filippo.) Many scenes open or close in the bedroom showing how sleep is used as a way of escaping problems. After confiding and confronting his father about his involvement with Filippo, Pino, unable to answer Michele’s questions, tells him to sleep. In this scene Michele challenges the authority figure in his life, his father. He causes a grown man to think of his actions and is certainly successful in doing so. For a young child to hold more moral awareness than a grown man, I believe, only intensifies the type of person Michele is.

I believe it is within this scene that Michele is most successful in challenging cultural context. He whole heartedly challenged not only his flesh and blood but his entire community. I find it baffling that he is the only one who sees wrong in the actions taken and takes it into his own hands to make amends and to do right.

I hold great admiration for Michele and strongly believe he was successful in challenging aspects of cultural context in his world. His sense of moral awareness and mature outlook on certain aspects of life is something I, a student, find very admirable. He challenged every wrong doing and through it all kept a young boy, of similar age to himself, alive based purely on friendship.