On My Skin
2018 · Directed by Alessio Cremonini
Original language: Italian
- drama
The story
The incredible true story behind the most controversial Italian court cases in recent years. Stefano Cucchi was arrested for a minor crime and mysteriously found dead during his detention. In one week's time, a family is changed forever.
What it’s like
Cold fluorescent corridors, washed-out greys and dull institutional beige, with a handheld camera that stays close to its figures and rarely pulls back to offer relief. The look is documentary-raw, the sound mostly ambient: clinking keys, footsteps on linoleum, courtroom murmur, and very little score to soften what is happening. It is a film to sit with in a hushed room, not one to half-watch, and its mood is bleak, anxious and grimly procedural, with a slow-building sense of helplessness as a family pushes against institutions that will not answer. Its pacing is steady and unhurried through a single brutal week, and the emotional arc follows a sister and parents moving from disbelief to fierce, exhausted resolve. Intensity is high: the central subject is physically abused in custody, and the film shows the aftermath of beatings, bruising and a prolonged hospital and detention ordeal with unflinching clarity, though it avoids gratuitous spectacle. It also includes drug use, nudity in a medical context, and emotional cruelty from authorities. Not gentle, and not for anyone seeking escape. Made for viewers drawn to unflinching social drama and true-case legal stories, who want their discomfort to have a purpose.
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