Ex-con Marco goes back to dealing coke for his old friends Glauco and Mauro. Faustino, Massimo and Federico spend their days doing drugs and bragging. Sonia divides her time between her university studies and her job in Sergio’s gambling den. A banal accident will leave behind a trail of fire, blood and violence. “The immense and isolated building that serves as the story’s backdrop is a shadow that oppresses and simultaneously protects; that erodes and creates new life energy. It is an island, a neighborhood, an entire city. It is the very metaphor for the life of each individual.” (Matteo Botrugno & Daniele Coluccini)

The violence, poverty and despair of life on an ultra grim housing estate is rendered un-sensationally in this slow burning depiction of ordinary life at the edge. Et in terra pax works because it has a sensitivity and sensibility that is fresh and incisive in dealing with such material. The film making allows the characters to breath, to have a depth and complexity which makes them more than just genre stereotypes and gives the drama a powerful resonance. In so doing, it makes the film’s denouement all too believable and entirely appropriate. (Adrian Wootton)