Based on the real life Circeo Massacre of 1975 in Rome, the early part of this film plays for the most part in a strict and stereotypical upper-middle-class boys' religious boarding school through the expected repression, bullying and ingrained attitudes. However, the actual school element takes an increasing back seat to what then seems like a fairly standard if subdued coming-of-age European drama, as the boys negotiate concepts of faith and sin alongside an increasingly adult world of sex and relationships. It is the latter part of the film that proves most difficult to watch, in an extended sequence that shows two of the young men (plus a third) kidnap and repeatedly rape two local girls at an isolated house that almost feels like it has drifted in from a Death Wish movie. The tone overall is deeply serious and pensive as befitting the material, and the traits of toxic masculinity and privilege are played out tellingly, but the different strands of the movie do not entirely hang together in the apparent search for the exact reasons behind the tragic events. The main characters are not sufficiently well-drawn to be compelling to follow, and the film's uncertainty of its identity is awkward overall.
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