Tiger Boy (2012)

Nine year old "Matteo" (Simone Santini) is driving his mother (Lidia Vitale) bonkers. He has become obsessed with a wrestler called "The Tiger" and has made himself a facemask which he steadfastly refuses to take off. Even his school principal (Francesco Foti) can't persuade him to take it off - and it quickly appears to us that this is a man who can be quite "persuasive". When "Matteo" watches his hero win his latest fight against a far larger opponent - think David and Goliath in lycra, that victory seems to empower him and we begin to see that the mask isn't just a childish fad - but instead it has an altogether more significant purpose. We do get some clues as to the more sinister plot of this drama, and I thought Santini handled that really quite strongly. By the very nature of the unfolding scenario, he hasn't a lot of dialogue but that makes his situation and his solution all the more potent to observe. This isn't an easy film to watch, but it's quite a thought-provoking twenty minutes that has something of an eye-for-an-eye to it that it's hard to rebuke.