Walls

Nino is in hiding. Nino is a family man, sorry, a Family man - expository voiceover and a conveniently scheduled television news item suggest that he's a Family man alone. His compatriots jailed, isolated from his equivalents in the other organisations, wanted for that usual mixture of racketeering.

It's Sicily. Those winding streets, those cobbled alleys, those hillsides covered in history. A wood-effect formica wardrobe in an abandoned house, a hidden door, an attic with one window, one television - Nino can't see the sea, and that pains him.

It's not the only symptom of his confinement.

The house has owners, but they're dead. The relatives are all abroad. It's empty, a perfect place to hide. It's also a perfect place to squat - and Nino's neighbours bring with them other problems, other solutions.

It's easy when discussing imprisonment in this part of the world to reference Gramsci, so let's - Nino's prisons aren't just physical. He's avoiding one jail by spending his time locked in an attic, a fold-out bed without even a pot to piss in. He scavenges food, eats it staring at the door, his window to the world just another courtyard. Throw in religion, it's nearly Easter, a parade of hooded penitents, familial responsibilities - the sudden appearance of a daughter - the sea.

It's well shot - it's got that sort of Europe through BBC4 sensibility, the grime of televisual veracity through digital colour correction. It's closely shot. Franz Cantalupo's Nino is given to darting glances, wistful stares. The walls are, variously, closing in.

Written and directed by Benedetto Pace, with solid cinematography from Julian Schwanitz, with a well-used original soundtrack, Mura is competently made and good to watch. Unfortunately the BBC4 thing plays against it - decompressed criminal storytelling in the HBO mode means that its delicate pace leaves one wanting more, or hoping for a more concentrated punch. That's not to say it's without power - indeed, to say that Nino gets to see the sea is to hold out the hope that things turn out well for him. Those walls don't stop closing in.