The Best Periphery Films You Can’t Miss

Introduction: The Periphery as a Cinematic Universe

The suburb, in cinema, transcends mere geographical connotation. The collective imagination is marked by foundational works that have transformed the French banlieues, the Brazilian favelas, or the American projects into global icons, from La Haine to City of God. These masterpieces have used the periphery as a pulsating universe, a borderland where the most acute contradictions of contemporary society are manifested.

But beyond these genre-defining films, the suburb is fertile ground for stories that deserve to be told. It is a cinema that gives a voice to those on the margins, revealing unspoken dynamics and stimulating critical reflection. It is a powerful tool that reflects and shapes culture, raising awareness of urgent issues like poverty, immigration, inequality, and rebellion.

This guide is an in-depth journey through the cinematic works that have captured the essence of the peripheries. It is a path that unites the most famous films with the most authentic independent visions. From Pasolini’s slums to British suburbs, we will analyze how cinema has narrated these spaces, offering a curated selection of the best films about the suburbs not to be missed.

Thematic Analysis and Historical Context: The Periphery as a Social Mirror

Cinema, since its origins, has looked at the peripheries not as mere backdrops, but as true mirrors of a nation’s social, economic, and cultural dynamics. The representation of these spaces has changed over time, reflecting urban transformations and new forms of marginalization.

Italian Neorealism and Its Roots

Neorealism, which emerged in post-war Italy between 1943 and 1952, represented the first, fundamental cinematic movement to lay the groundwork for the narration of the peripheries. Characterized by plots set among disadvantaged and working classes, with long outdoor shots and frequent use of non-professional actors, it depicted the frustration, poverty, and despair of a wounded and rebuilding Italy. The Roman borgate, in particular, became the focal point of much of this production, symbolic places that breathe and absorb human events, transforming into true co-protagonists.

In this context, the periphery is not a mere geographical backdrop, but rather an existential “limbo” or a place of profound alienation. The characters who inhabit it are often trapped in a circular path, with no hope of redemption or change. Material degradation and geographical isolation are not just physical conditions, but generate a psychological and moral stasis, where the old anxiety for redemption seems to have died out, giving way to a fatalistic resignation. The periphery thus becomes a deep social and spiritual wound, a place from which there is no escape except, sometimes, through death.

French Cinéma de Banlieue: Rage and Rebellion

The “cinéma de banlieue” is a distinctive genre that emerged in France between the mid-1980s and 1990s, transforming the Parisian suburbs into a symbol of cultural alteration, marginality, and avant-garde. These films explore social tensions, post-colonial immigration, and youth rebellion, often with a sociorealistic approach that has evolved over time to include various viewpoints. The banlieue is depicted as the outcome of social deconstruction driven by neoliberalism, which has generated clan-based governance and a state of permanent civil war, a systemic collapse where conflict is the norm. The police are often perceived not as a solution, but as an oppressive force, an integral part of the problem. This suggests a deep social wound where traditional institutions have failed, leading to a seemingly endless cycle of violence. The films do not merely narrate events, but comment on a failed social contract, where social deconstruction is the primary cause of this condition.

Key Aspects and Cinematic Styles: The Language of the Periphery

The cinematic representation of peripheries is not limited to narrative content, but extends deeply to form, styles, and visual language. The way a story is told is intrinsically linked to the message it seeks to convey.

Social Realism Beyond Borders

Cinema that portrays peripheries has often employed a social realism approach, an aesthetic that aims to describe the raw nakedness of the protagonists’ miseries. This style implies the abandonment of rhetorical devices and a less narrative tendency, with long descriptive pauses and ample space dedicated to the psychological depth of the characters. It is not just about outdoor shooting or non-professional actors, but a “new way of looking” that produces “pure optical situations,” capable of bringing reality to light directly and unmediated.

However, realism in peripheral cinema has undergone a significant evolution over the decades. While Pasolini’s Neorealism, despite its rawness, depicted a poverty with a “purity (albeit forced)” and an “ancient anxiety for redemption,” contemporary works show a periphery that is “physically but also morally degraded.” Today’s characters seem to have lost that “purity of sub-proletarian consciousness,” reflecting a more disillusioned, almost nihilistic realism. This change is not accidental: prolonged social neglect and the absence of paths to redemption have transformed cinematic representation, moving from a realism that denounced a recoverable condition to one that observes an almost irreversible reality. The periphery, in more recent cinema, is often a place where hope is a luxury, and degradation is accepted as an intrinsic condition of existence.

The use of black and white, as in La Haine or Accattone, is not an aesthetic choice in itself, but contributes to creating dramatic intensity, expressing the ferocity of situations through harsh contrasts and stagnant atmospheres. Long takes, like the breathtaking ones in Athena, immerse the viewer in an almost video-game-like visual experience, amplifying the sense of chaos and immediacy. The dark and dry cinematography of films like Dogman enhances the emotionality of the sequences and moral degradation, making the environment an extension of the characters’ psyche.

The importance of dialect and slang is another fundamental aspect. Language is a powerful vehicle of authenticity and social rootedness. The use of Romanesco dialect in Pasolini or the slang of the French banlieues is not just a stylistic choice, but a way to immerse the characters in their social reality, making the dialogues lively and rarely effective. However, new generations, filtered by mass communication and globalization, show an increasingly hybrid dialect, reflecting the complexity of contemporary peripheral identities.

Spatial Symbolism

The periphery in cinema is never a mere backdrop, but a “symbolic place” that accompanies, breathes, and absorbs events, becoming charged with deep meanings. It can be a “degraded simulacrum,” a “limbo between concrete pours,” a “fortress,” or even a “ghetto in reverse.” The periphery manifests itself as a living organism and a true co-protagonist of the stories. The urban fabric itself transforms into a “limbo,” reflecting the characters’ internal states and their life trajectories. The physical environment not only reflects but actively shapes the destinies and moral choices of individuals, being able to be both a “tacit accomplice to the most terrible crimes” and a catalyst for redemption.

From the borgate of Prenestino and Tuscolana in Pasolini to the Ghisolfa in Milan in Visconti, up to the stark and gray coastline of Dogman or the Tor Bella Monaca district in La terra dell’abbastanza, the peripheral environment is intrinsically linked to the narrative. In La Zona, the high walls and barbed wire of a gated community are not just physical barriers, but symbols of social exclusion that generate fear and violence, transforming the periphery into an almost sentient entity that influences every action of its inhabitants.

Subgenres and Currents: Voices from the Margins

The theme of the periphery has given rise to various cinematic currents and subgenres, each with its own narrative and stylistic specificities, but all united by the urgency of portraying the facets of marginalization.

Cinema of Social Inequality

This crucial strand explores the abyssal gap between wealth and poverty, often with the periphery as a demarcation line or as a place where the consequences of capitalism and the commodification of life manifest. Inequality is here represented as “the hyperbole of our times,” an exaggeration of reality that reveals a deeper, universal truth. The idea that “opposite poles collide” and the necessity for them to “sniff each other out” implies that the periphery, or the condition of marginality, is not a separate world, but intrinsically connected to and influenced by the center. The extreme wealth of the center generates the extreme poverty of the periphery, and their forced interaction leads to explosive consequences. Visual narration, with its contrasts between “light and rain” or “above and below,” reinforces this collision of worlds, making it palpable to the viewer.

Cinema of Suburban Alienation

This subgenre explores the periphery not so much as a place of explicit degradation, but as a space of isolation, homogenization, and disillusionment with the “dream” of a better life, often associated with suburban living. Here, the periphery reveals itself as an “existential nightmare” that goes beyond physical degradation. Works like Vivarium and This Must Be the Place delve into a more subtle and psychological form of alienation. Homogeneity and apparent comfort can transform into a prison, leading to a profound loss of identity and freedom. Alienation is not just a product of poverty or violence, but can also stem from the emptiness of a privileged but unfulfilling existence. The “disillusionment of the American dream” is a direct cause of this alienation, pushing characters into a search for meaning that often clashes with emptiness.

Cinema of Coming-of-Age and Youth Rebellion

This subgenre focuses on stories of growth, struggle, and redemption in the difficult realities of the peripheries, often with a focus on the loss of innocence and the difficult search for identity in complex contexts. The periphery here is a true “proving ground” for youth, where corruption and potential redemption clash. Films like La terra dell’abbastanza and Periferia show young protagonists navigating a world where criminal activity, however illusory, offers a path to “redemption” or “respect,” due to a lack of legitimate opportunities. However, the concept of “redemption” is also present, suggesting that, although the periphery can be a “limbo” of criminality, it can also be a place where characters find the strength to change their habits and open themselves to novelty. This tension between inevitable downfall and the possibility of salvation is a complex and recurring theme, demonstrating human resilience even in the most difficult contexts.

British Social Realism: Dignity Under Siege

British cinema, particularly that of Ken Loach, has a long tradition of social realism, denouncing the country’s contradictions and the living conditions of the less affluent classes. His films are historical testimonies that, with rigor and “naked essentiality,” narrate the struggle for dignity and citizens’ rights. Loach expands the concept of “periphery” beyond geographical boundaries, portraying an “existential periphery” where individuals are marginalized by a dehumanizing bureaucratic system or the brutal realities of precarious work. The “non-places” of bureaucracy become as oppressive as any urban slum, trapping individuals in a cycle of humiliation and despair. This highlights a modern form of marginalization, where the “periphery” is less about physical location and more about systemic exclusion and the erosion of human dignity. Neoliberal policies and bureaucratic inefficiency directly lead to human suffering and social invisibility.

Further Insights and Cultural Impact: Cinema That Transforms

Cinema is not just a medium for telling stories, but a powerful agent of social and cultural change. Its ability to illuminate peripheral realities has a profound impact on public perception and community life.

The Periphery as a Narrative Laboratory

Cinema has played a fundamental role in giving voice and visibility to often ignored or stigmatized realities, transforming the periphery into a true “narrative laboratory.” Through the big screen, peripheral communities can tell their own stories, expressing desires, dramas, aspirations, and solutions. This process stimulates participation and pride in belonging to a place, contributing to a “regeneration” and a “peripheral protagonism” that goes beyond mere representation. Film can empower marginalized communities, creating a bidirectional relationship where the periphery inspires cinema, and cinema, in turn, helps reshape the perception and reality of the periphery itself. Projects like “Cineperiferie” and “Temporary Cinema” are concrete examples of this transformative power, bringing cinema directly into communities and promoting access to culture and active participation.

The Social Role of Independent Cinema

Low-budget productions and emerging auteurs play a crucial role in telling authentic stories from the peripheries, often outside mainstream circuits. This “bottom-up” cinema helps rebuild the connection between young people and the seventh art, valuing peripheries as centers of contemporary narration. Their independence allows for greater expressive freedom and a rawer, more truthful representation of social dynamics, offering perspectives unfiltered by commercial logics and dominant narrative conventions.

Future Perspectives

The future of cinematic narration of peripheries moves between different trends. On one hand, the continued exploration of traditional themes such as degradation, immigration, and inequality, but with new nuances and viewpoints that reflect the evolving complexity of these spaces. On the other hand, the integration of new technologies such as virtual reality and artificial intelligence, which can create more immersive and diversified experiences, allowing viewers to literally “enter” peripheral realities. The democratization of production and distribution tools and the increasing demand for “diverse storytelling” suggest a future where voices from the peripheries can emerge with greater force and authenticity, challenging conventions and bringing new perspectives to the screen. Projects like “Cineperiferie” and “Temporary Cinema” demonstrate a growing commitment to bringing cinema directly into communities, promoting access to culture and active participation, consolidating cinema’s role as a bridge between center and periphery.

In summary, periphery cinema is a constantly evolving field, a living laboratory that continues to explore the complexities of the human condition at the margins of society. It is a necessary cinema that forces us to look at what we often prefer to ignore, offering us valuable keys to understanding our present and imagining a more equitable and inclusive future.

The List of the Best Periphery Films You Can’t Miss

Here is a curated selection of films that perfectly embody the complexity, resilience, and challenges of life in the periphery, offering unique and unforgettable glimpses into these often marginalized but story-rich universes:

La Haine (Hate)

Description: A day in the life of three young friends, Vinz, Saïd, and Hubert, in the Parisian banlieue, in the aftermath of a night of violent clashes. The film captures the palpable tension, rage, and disillusionment of a generation trapped between police brutality and a lack of opportunities.

Analysis: Mathieu Kassovitz uses stylized black and white and dynamic direction to immerse the viewer in a claustrophobic and hostile environment. The film is a cry of social denunciation, an exploration of violence as the only perceived response to marginalization and injustice, making the banlieue not just a backdrop, but a living, pulsating character, a symbol of the “permanent civil war” unfolding on the fringes of metropolises.

Les Misérables

Description: Stéphane, a newly transferred police officer, joins the anti-crime squad in Montfermeil, one of Paris’s toughest suburbs. He soon finds himself confronting tensions between various local gangs and the brutality of his colleagues, in a spiral of events that culminates in a riot.

Analysis: Ladj Ly, who grew up in the same banlieue, offers an internal and visceral look at power dynamics and the fragility of social order. The film is an exploration of contemporary “French neorealism,” where the periphery is a constant battlefield, a place of irresolvable conflict between authority and residents, and a warning about the consequences of social neglect and the deconstruction desired by neoliberalism.

Accattone

Description: Vittorio Cataldi, known as Accattone, is a young pimp who lives by his wits in the Roman borgate. When his prostitute is arrested, he tries to change his life and work honestly, but his condition as a “sub-proletarian” seems to offer him no escape, dragging him towards an inevitable destiny.

Analysis: Pier Paolo Pasolini’s directorial debut is a neorealist masterpiece that portrays with ruthless authenticity life on the margins of Roman society. The periphery is not just a scene of physical degradation, but a place of existential alienation, where characters are victims of a circular destiny, with no possibility of redemption except in death. Pasolini depicts a “pure” but trapped sub-proletariat, in a raw and hyper-realistic aesthetic that would become a benchmark.

Mamma Roma

Description: Mamma Roma, a former prostitute, tries to build an honest life selling fruit at the market and give a better future to her son Ettore, who has never known her past. But the shadows of the past and the bad company of the periphery threaten her dreams of redemption and a different life.

Analysis: Anna Magnani embodies the strength and despair of a mother fighting against an adverse fate. Pasolini continues his investigation into the Roman borgate, showing how the periphery can be a place of both hope and downfall, where traditional values clash with the harsh reality of marginalization and crime, leading to an inevitable tragedy. The film highlights the social distance between the borgate and the city center, not only physical but in terms of opportunities.

Athena

Description: In the Athena district, a poor suburb of a French city, the killing of a young man under unclear circumstances, with suspicions of police responsibility, sparks a violent youth uprising that transforms the community into a besieged fortress.

Analysis: Romain Gavras takes the “rioters vs. police” subgenre to its most spectacular and immersive dimension, almost like a video game. The film is an explosion of visual fury, with breathtaking long takes, reflecting a desperate and resolute rebellion of young people, aware that there may be no happy ending. The banlieue becomes the stage for a tragedy that spares no one, an arena where chaos reigns supreme.

Parasite

Description: The Kim family, living in a damp and precarious semi-basement, devises a plan to infiltrate, one by one, the lives of the wealthy Park family, who live in a luxurious villa. Their forced cohabitation reveals deep and brutal social inequalities, leading to an escalation of unpredictable and tragic events.

Analysis: Bong Joon-ho creates a hyperbole on social inequality, where the “periphery” is represented by the underground and marginal living conditions of the Kims, in stark contrast to the opulence of the Parks’ villa. The film is a fierce critique of capitalism and its consequences, showing how physical proximity between opposing classes can lead to explosive and tragic conflict, highlighting the parasitic nature of modern social relations.

The Zone (La Zona)

Description: In a fortified residential neighborhood in Mexico City, separated from the surrounding favelas by high walls, a robbery gone wrong leads to the death of a woman. The residents, tired of police corruption, decide to take justice into their own hands, unleashing a merciless manhunt.

Analysis: Rodrigo Plá explores the fear and selfishness of the privileged who barricade themselves against poverty. The Zone” is a periphery in reverse, a gilded ghetto that self-segregates, but which cannot escape the dynamics of violence and injustice it itself helps to create. The film is a powerful allegory about inequality and the loss of humanity, suggesting that a world without walls is a more humane world, where solidarity should prevail over segregation.

Vivarium

Description: Gemma and Tom, a young couple, visit a new housing development called Yonder, consisting of identical houses. After the real estate agent mysteriously disappears, they find themselves trapped in this surreal neighborhood, unable to leave and forced to raise a non-human child, in a seemingly endless life cycle.

Analysis: A dystopian psychological thriller that transforms the ideal periphery, a symbol of the bourgeois dream of stability, into a Kafkaesque nightmare. The film is a powerful metaphor for suburban alienation, the loss of individuality, and the trap of social expectations, where homogenization becomes a prison with no escape, a labyrinth of identical terraced houses stretching infinitely.

Dogman

Description: Marcello, a mild-mannered and gentle dog groomer, lives and works in a squalid Roman periphery, where he is crushed by the bullying of Simone, a violent former boxer. His search for dignity and redemption drags him into a spiral of violence and revenge, in a context where justice is absent.

Analysis: Matteo Garrone immerses us in a desolate and lawless periphery, a “non-place” that reflects the moral degradation of its inhabitants. The film is a raw allegory about human nature and the loss of humanity in a context of social abandonment, where justice is absent and survival merges with bestiality. It is a periphery story that could be set in any city in the world, highlighting the universality of its message about evil and dehumanization.

The Land of Plenty

Description: Mirko and Manolo, two inseparable friends from the Roman periphery (Tor Bella Monaca), accidentally hit a man with their car. Their decision to flee leads them to discover a criminal world that offers them an illusory escape from their condition, but which will swallow them in a vortex of violence and despair.

Analysis: The D’Innocenzo brothers deliver a powerful and disenchanted debut, exploring the fragility of youth in the peripheries. The film is a ruthless analysis of how the lack of prospects and the allure of easy money can corrupt innocence, transforming the periphery into an existential prison from which escape is almost impossible. Their approach is visceral, with invasive close-ups that distort the faces of the young protagonists, making their downfall even more palpable.

I, Daniel Blake

Description: Daniel Blake, a 59-year-old carpenter from Newcastle, finds himself caught in a bureaucratic labyrinth after a heart attack prevents him from working. He meets Katie, a young single mother with two children, and together they fight against a dehumanizing and indifferent welfare system that pushes them to the margins of society.

Analysis: Ken Loach, a master of British social realism, denounces the cruelty of the welfare system that marginalizes and humiliates citizens. Although not strictly set in a physical “periphery” in the traditional sense, the film portrays an “existential periphery” of social invisibility and a struggle for dignity, showing how bureaucracy can create an isolation as suffocating as any urban one, eroding the humanity of the characters.

Sorry We Missed You

Description: Ricky and his family in Newcastle struggle with debt after the 2008 financial crisis. Ricky decides to become a franchise delivery driver, hoping for a breakthrough, but finds himself trapped in a precarious work system that severely tests his family and his dignity.

Analysis: Ken Loach once again explores new forms of precariousness and exploitation in the contemporary world of work. The periphery, in this case, is the context of a daily life marked by sacrifices and constantly threatened dignity. The film is a sharp critique of the “gig economy” and its devastating impact on families, transforming the home, once a refuge, into an extension of the place of exploitation and despair.

The Old Oak

Description: In a small village in northern England, a pub, The Old Oak, becomes the meeting point and clash between the local community, strained by economic crisis, and a group of Syrian refugees. The pub owner tries to build bridges of solidarity and understanding.

Analysis: Ken Loach’s latest film continues his exploration of the British peripheries, here understood as struggling local communities confronting immigration. The pub, a symbol of gathering, becomes a microcosm of a divided society, but also a place where solidarity and empathy can flourish, offering a hope of rebirth in a context of social degradation and distrust.

Samir

Description: Saimir, a sixteen-year-old Albanian, lives in Ostia, on the outskirts of Rome, with his father, who is involved in the illegal trafficking of immigrants. Saimir is forced to participate in his father’s illicit activities, but he dreams of a different life, far from the degradation and moral compromises of his current existence.

Analysis: Francesco Munzi’s “Saimir” delves into the harsh realities of the Italian peripheries, specifically the Roman coastline of Ostia, which becomes a symbol of marginalization and illegal activities. The film portrays the periphery not just as a geographical location but as a social and moral borderland where immigrants struggle for survival and identity. Saimir’s personal journey reflects the broader challenges of integration, exploitation, and the elusive hope for a better future in a society that often pushes the most vulnerable to its fringes.

Ostia

Description: Set in the Roman seaside town of Ostia, the film follows the intertwined lives of two petty criminals, Rabino and Bandiera, who are released from prison and return to their squalid existence. Their lives are further complicated by the arrival of a mysterious young woman named Monica, leading to a tragic love triangle amidst a backdrop of violence and desperation.

Analysis: Sergio Citti, a close collaborator of Pier Paolo Pasolini, paints a raw and brutal portrait of the Roman periphery in “Ostia.” The film explores the lives of those on the fringes of society – the marginalized, the poor, and the criminal underworld – in a desolate and morally ambiguous landscape. Ostia, with its rundown buildings and grim atmosphere, becomes a metaphor for a forgotten and decaying Italy, where human relationships are shaped by violence, betrayal, and a desperate search for redemption that often remains unfulfilled. The film highlights the cyclical nature of poverty and crime in these neglected areas.

Beating Hearts

Description: Love Never Dies (original title: L’Amour ouf), directed by Gilles Lellouche in 2024, is an intense and troubled love story set in the 1980s in northern France. The protagonists are Jackie (Adèle Exarchopoulos), a smart and determined middle-class girl, and Clotaire (François Civil), a young man from a humble background, raised in a large and troubled family.

Analysis: The film is set in a working-class port city in northern France, among docks, factories, freight trains, and industrial landscapes. The peripheral spaces are not mere static backdrops, but actively contribute to the film’s atmosphere, expressing the sense of marginalization, conflict, and desire for redemption that drive the characters. Jackie comes from a petit bourgeois family, while Clotaire grows up amidst economic hardship and marginal influences. This social divide runs throughout the narrative and is reflected in the power dynamics, family expectations, and the opportunities (or lack thereof) that the young protagonists are forced to confront.

Bird

Description: The film follows Bailey, a 12-year-old girl living with her family in a squat in North Kent, England. Her life is chaotic, marked by her father’s erratic behavior and the struggles of her young stepmother. Bailey seeks escape and meaning in her harsh reality, finding solace and a strange connection with a mysterious man named Bird.

Analysis: Andrea Arnold’s “Bird” is a visceral and empathetic exploration of the social peripheries of contemporary Britain. The film immerses the viewer in the lives of those living on the margins, in makeshift homes and neglected landscapes. The North Kent setting, with its desolate beauty and sense of abandonment, perfectly embodies the physical and emotional periphery. Arnold highlights the resilience and vulnerability of individuals, particularly young people, navigating poverty, dysfunctional families, and the search for identity and belonging in environments where traditional structures have broken down. The film’s raw realism underscores the often-unseen struggles of those living at the edge of society.

Le notti di Cabiria

Description: Cabiria, a naive and optimistic prostitute living in the outskirts of Rome, repeatedly seeks love and a better life, only to be exploited and disappointed by the men she encounters. Despite her misfortunes, she maintains an indomitable spirit and an enduring hope for happiness.

Analysis: Federico Fellini’s “Le notti di Cabiria” vividly portrays the Roman peripheries of the mid-20th century, focusing on the lives of marginalized women. Cabiria’s existence unfolds in the squalid, often forgotten areas outside the city’s glamorous center, highlighting the social and economic disparities of the time. The film uses these peripheral settings – from the dusty roads to the makeshift homes – to emphasize Cabiria’s vulnerability and her constant struggle against a world that exploits her. Despite the bleakness of her circumstances, Cabiria’s unwavering hope and resilience become a testament to the human spirit thriving even in the most neglected corners of society, making her a poignant symbol of the periphery’s enduring humanity.

The Lost Poet

Description: The Lost Poet (2024), directed by and starring Fabio Del Greco, tells the story of Dante Mezzadri, a middle-aged man who decides to abandon an unfulfilling bourgeois life and his wife in order to pursue his poetic ideal along the Roman coastline. After years of friendship and youthful passion for poetry shared with Iguana — an old friend who has instead managed to become a famous poet — Dante now lives as a homeless man, printing and trying in vain to sell his own poetry collections.

Analysis: The Lost Poet by Fabio Del Greco offers a tender and melancholic look at the Roman peripheries, focusing on individuals who are culturally and socially marginalized. The suburban setting underscores a sense of abandonment and neglect, where art and poetry often go unnoticed. The poet’s struggle highlights the isolation experienced by those living on the fringes, yet it also celebrates the resilience of the human spirit and the ability to find beauty and connection even in desolate environments. The periphery here is not just a physical space but a state of mind, where forgotten stories and quiet acts of resistance against indifference unfold.

Amore tossico

Description: Set in the drug-ridden Ostia of the early 1980s, the film follows a group of young heroin addicts as they navigate their daily lives, marked by addiction, petty crime, and desperate attempts to find money for their next fix. It offers a raw and unflinching look at the devastating impact of drug abuse on individuals and their community.

Analysis: Claudio Caligari’s “Amore tossico” is a harrowing and uncompromising depiction of the extreme social periphery: the world of drug addiction in the Roman suburbs of Ostia. The film plunges into the lives of individuals completely marginalized by society, whose existence revolves around the cycle of addiction and survival. The desolate, decaying landscapes of Ostia serve as a stark backdrop, reflecting the internal desolation of the characters. This film is a powerful testament to the forgotten lives on the absolute fringes, highlighting the brutal realities of poverty, despair, and the lack of opportunities that push individuals into such destructive paths. It’s a quintessential film about the “periphery of existence.”

Don’t Be Bad

Description: Set in Ostia in the mid-1990s, the film follows Cesare and Vittorio, two young men leading a life of petty crime, drug use, and aimless existence. Their deep friendship is tested as Vittorio tries to escape this destructive path, while Cesare remains trapped by his environment and choices.

Analysis: Directed by Claudio Caligari, “Don’t Be Bad” is a spiritual successor to “Amore tossico,” continuing to explore the Roman peripheries, particularly Ostia, through the lens of a new generation. The film captures the raw energy and despair of young men living on the margins, where opportunities are scarce and the allure of crime and drugs is strong. The periphery here is a place of stagnant hope and cyclical poverty, but also of intense human bonds. The film is a poignant elegy for a lost generation, highlighting the struggles of those trying to break free from the gravitational pull of their environment while others succumb to its harsh realities.

Il grido

Description: Aldo, a factory worker in a small town in the Po Delta, leaves his home and wanders aimlessly across the desolate, foggy Italian countryside after his lover leaves him. His journey is a desperate search for meaning and connection in a world that seems increasingly indifferent and alienating.

Analysis: Michelangelo Antonioni’s “Il grido” (The Cry) explores the theme of periphery through both geographical and existential lenses. The film is set in the isolated and melancholic landscapes of the Po Delta, a rural periphery far removed from the bustling urban centers. This desolate environment mirrors Aldo’s internal alienation and despair, emphasizing a sense of being on the fringe of society and emotional connection. The film portrays the periphery as a place of stagnation and quiet desperation, where individuals struggle with an overwhelming sense of emptiness and the inability to find their place in a rapidly changing world. It’s a profound study of loneliness in forgotten landscapes.

Sacro Gra

Description: A documentary that explores the lives of various individuals living along the Grande Raccordo Anulare (GRA), Rome’s ring road. Rosi weaves together disparate stories – from a nobleman living in a decaying palace to a palm tree exterminator, a paramedic, and a fisherman – offering a mosaic of humanity on the fringes of the eternal city.

Analysis: Gianfranco Rosi’s “Sacro Gra” is a masterful cinematic exploration of the urban periphery, specifically the vast, often overlooked world surrounding Rome’s ring road. The GRA itself becomes a symbolic periphery, a liminal space where diverse lives intersect but rarely truly connect. The film reveals the hidden communities and individual narratives that exist just beyond the city’s iconic center, showcasing a Rome that is far from the tourist brochures. Rosi’s observational style highlights the quiet dignity, eccentricities, and struggles of those living on the edges, demonstrating that the periphery is not merely a geographical boundary but a rich tapestry of human experience, often overlooked but deeply significant.

A Prophet

Description: Malik El Djebena, a young, illiterate French-Arab man, is sentenced to six years in prison. Inside, he is forced to become an informant and enforcer for a Corsican mafia boss, gradually learning the rules of the criminal underworld and rising through its ranks.

Analysis: Jacques Audiard’s A Prophet powerfully depicts the prison as a distinct and brutal periphery within society. For Malik, prison is not just a physical confinement but a social and cultural margin where new rules and hierarchies govern existence. The film explores how individuals from marginalized backgrounds are further pushed to the fringes within this system, forced to adapt or perish. The prison becomes a microcosm of a society with its own power structures, violence, and codes, reflecting the harsh realities faced by many young men from immigrant backgrounds in the French banlieues (suburbs/peripheries) who often find themselves caught in a cycle of crime and incarceration.

Rocco and His Brothers

Description: The film follows the Parondi family, who migrate from the impoverished South of Italy to the industrialized North (Milan) in search of a better life. Their dreams are shattered as they face the harsh realities of urban life, moral decay, and internal conflicts, particularly through the boxing careers of two brothers, Rocco and Simone.

Analysis: Luchino Visconti’s “Rocco and His Brothers” is a monumental work on the theme of internal migration and the challenges of adapting to new urban peripheries. The film portrays the Parondi family’s journey from the rural, traditional South to the industrial, modern North (Milan) as a move from one form of periphery to another. Milan, initially seen as a land of opportunity, becomes a cold and alienating environment that corrupts and destroys the family’s traditional values. The boxing world, in particular, represents a brutal social periphery where individuals are exploited. Visconti masterfully illustrates how the dreams of a better life in the “center” can lead to moral and social degradation in the “periphery” of a rapidly changing industrial society.

Amores Perros

Description: The film intertwines three disparate stories in Mexico City, all connected by a car crash and the presence of dogs. It explores themes of love, loss, violence, and redemption, showcasing the raw and often brutal realities of life across different social strata of the sprawling metropolis.

Analysis: Alejandro González Iñárritu’s “Amores perros” vividly portrays the sprawling and often chaotic urban peripheries of Mexico City. The film’s narrative structure, which interweaves the lives of characters from vastly different social classes, highlights the stark contrasts and invisible boundaries within the city. From the impoverished and violent neighborhoods where dog fighting thrives to the more affluent but equally troubled lives, the film reveals how individuals navigate their existence on the fringes of societal norms and expectations. The periphery here is not just a geographical location but a social condition, where desperation, passion, and fate collide, exposing the raw underbelly of a complex urban landscape.

Ad ogni costo

Description: At All Costs is a 2010 film directed by Davide Alfonsi and Denis Malagnino. The story follows Gennarino, a desperate father living in an abandoned trailer on the outskirts of Rome. Gennarino is determined to get back his son Pasqualino, who was taken from him by social services. After failing to find a job, his desperation drives him back into criminal activity, becoming a drug dealer and clashing with others over control of the territory.

Analysis: At All Costs portrays the Roman periphery as a place of extreme marginalization and despair. Gennarino lives in an abandoned trailer, a symbol of a life on the fringes of society. This environment is not just a backdrop, but a defining element of his existential condition and his decisions: the difficulty in finding work and the subsequent choice to turn to dealing drugs are directly linked to the precariousness of his surroundings. The periphery thus becomes the setting for Gennarino’s struggle to reclaim his son—an objective he pursues “at all costs” in an environment that offers no other way out.