Superficially, this is a film that pays tribute to Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 classic The Godfather, the twist being that Michael Corleone is here a teenage girl called Lesia, played by Ghjuvanna Benedetti, who is drawn into the organised crime world of her father, Pierre-Paul, played by Saveriu Santucci. 

But the milieux are miles apart in space and time. Colonna’s setting of 1995 Corsica emphasises the role of violent nationalists as much as competing mafia clans and is grittily realistic about the grubbiness of a life of crime on an island that is both wild and ancient in its habits and yet dependent on modern tourism. Lesia is no war veteran but a surly teen who resents her summer being interrupted by a man she barely knows. Her “maturing” over the course of the film is a tribute to Benedetti’s talent.

As a feature debut, The Kingdom also highlights the ability of Julien Colonna as a director and screenwriter (the latter a co-credit with Jeanne Herry) and the promise to come. The pace of the film keeps us tensely engaged, even when the story involves the inevitable longeurs of waiting for events, while the relationships at its heart are utterly convincing and ultimately affecting, despite the brutal nature of the tale and the sense of an inescapable doom. That we still have hope for Lesia to lead a normal life at the end of it all is a triumph of sorts.

“There are fierce and overwhelmingly authentic performances here from first-timers in Julien Colonna’s terrific mob drama… The performances of Benedetti and Santucci in the long and intimate dialogue scenes that Colonna gives them are really outstanding, as Pierre-Paul sadly explains the endless cycle of revenge that is now his life, and which began when he had to avenge his father’s death more than three decades previously.” Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

“Directed with razor-sharp, naturalistic precision and set over one sweltering Corsican summer, amid stunning Mediterranean vistas that provide a backdrop to all the bloody vendettas, The Kingdom marks the arrival of a bold new talent who’s able to spin a gripping crime thriller while channeling real emotion on screen.” Jordan Mintzer, The Hollywood Reporter