Audience Member
A story about a nine year old girl that stays at her aunt during the summer while her parents are in Africa for humanity work. We meet a hurtened, lonely and damaged girl, an independent girl that goes trough a lot, but mostly we meet very a strong girl.
It got some great imagery, but I noticed some scenes with a heavy load of camera shaking. On the plus side it's at least two scenes here that honor or almost copy Tarkovsys work. A dream like and a pretty good film, but it's a bit slow at first. Not too interesting, but it always stays all right. Not a cosy childhood film, not gruesome either, but a pretty real film about a serious matter.
7 out of 10 frogs.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/17/23
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Audience Member
This is a very slow movie, one so slow it may reduce your pulse to a slight 55 BPM. With that said, if you're up to the challenge, the young lead actress is amazing to watch and her character's journey is rather moving.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/02/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A very different movie from the Town I saw earlier tonight. This is slower, much less ordinary life, in this case the ordinary life of a 10-year old, that do get to experience something not that common for a 10-year old. But in reality she do get to experience all those emotions due to hear and the ones around her's actions. Fear, guilty, wonder, all without the safety net of parents. It is all happening in a drama at a slow pace.
This is presented in absolutely gorgeous photo. I also have to give the scene decorators big thumbs up. They have managed to replicate the Swedish early 80's so well. I do recognize a lot of things from my own childhood.
I recommended it for when one is in the right mood.
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
01/22/23
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Audience Member
Loneliness teaches lots of things we can't learn around people who only jerk us around and misguide us.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/19/23
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Audience Member
The delicate photography elevates this movie from 70% to 80%, for me. It's a slightly depressing story, set in Sweden, 1981, about a ten year old girl who is left at home with her aunt's care by her parents who are going to Africa during the summer "to save black children". At first, the girl was supposed to follow, and even gets several vaccinations for the trip. In the last minute, the parents gets a call from the swedish consulate saying that their daughter is too young to go to Africa. They ask the girls aunt to take care of her. The aunt is a heavily drinking party girl, who have other plans then babysit during the summer vacation.
The girl soon gets neglected and abandoned by her aunt, having promised not to tell anybody. She will take this promise very seriously and won't utter a word to any neighbour or friend that she is living all by herself.
Despite she's doing her very best to manage on her own; doing all the chores, shopping groceries, cleaning the house, ect., it's almost inevitable that a 10-year old girl, who's never taken care of herself before, will suffer lots of harm from malnutrition.
To make the days less lonely, she visits the teenage neighbour girl, Tina and her cousin, who boss around with the little girl and talks her into doing stupid things. Other days, she plays with the neighbour boy Ola, of the same age as her. Together they catch tadpoles in a cree, put them is a glass bowl, feed them and watch them grow.
Adult neighbours gets suspicious after a while, when they notice that the girl is always dirty and suffers from an awful constipation, and starts to get a nasty infection on the arm where she had her vaccination.
This movie is not like any movie I've seen before about childhood, or coming-of-age. It's very stripped in it's way, does not contain much action of dialog. You feel more like an observer then an audience, if you see what I mean. But still the movie arises very strong feelings. Like in the fashion of the swedish new wave, the movie is stripped of sentiments, they are left for the audience to create.
Though it might look that way, from reading the synopsis, this is not an overly pitying movie, or a traditional tear jerker in any way! Like I said, in this movie, you are the observer, and you are left to create your own emotions. You can feel some tones of cynicism, though.
The ironic twist of the situation, is that the ever so idealistic parents who want to rescue the poor black children in Africa, are practically neglecting their own child by leaving her to a very careless aunt, and not even once bother to phone home to assure that everything is fine.
If you are into world cinema, you shouldn't hesitate to watch this!
Rated 4/5 Stars •
Rated 4 out of 5 stars
02/10/23
Full Review
Audience Member
A girl is left home alone. No robbers are coming to her house, though. The movie is mostly quite realistic and although it's from the viewpoint of the girl, it's not exactly a children's film. Even quite the opposite though no one actually dies. The child actors do a good job here.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/11/23
Full Review
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