Open Roads, an annual festival of new Italian cinema, kicked off this week at Film at Lincoln Center with a screening of Piranhas, directed by Claudio Giovannesi. Introducing his film, Giovannesi recalled having begun the script two years ago in New York, when he met with the novelist Roberto Saviano, the famed author of Gomorrah, about Neapolitan mobsters; their script for Piranhas won the Silver Bear in Berlin.

An edgy coming of age look at young men in Naples based on Saviano’s novel, Piranhas: The Boy Bosses of Naples, the film focuses on one fearless 15-year old named Nicola and his attempts to make it in a man’s world. Observing his mother pay off the local hoods for protection in her dry-cleaning shop, he figures out how to gain power in this insulated world of street crime. Even his love for a beautiful neighborhood girl does not keep him from the danger he courts on his scooter, navigating Naples’ windy streets, wielding a gun.

Of course the location of Naples conjures the world of Elena Ferrante and her epic saga of two young women coming of age in the mid-century. This could be the story of the men who go to school with Lenu and Lila, and ultimately woo them. While the site happens to be Naples, Giovannesi said, this story could take place in any neighborhood where opportunities for young people are limited, or do not exist. He wanted to explore the theme of loss of innocence. And here’s an added image of dread for Americans at this moment: guns in the hands of young men.