Summer 1993
classified 12A SPlease note: This was screened in July 2018
Bereavement is seen through the eyes of a six-year-old girl in this assured, visually arresting debut from Catalan director Carla Simon.
After the death of her mother, Frida (an extraordinary performance from Laia Artigas) is dealing with grief she cannot process when she is packed off from her Barcelona home to live with her mother’s brother, his wife and their four-year-old daughter in Catalonia. However good intentions don’t always produce the desired result as Frida struggles to settle into a new family dynamic - and whilst she may be convinced that running away would be the best solution to her problems, she has to learn to cope with her emotions whilst her new parents, in turn, have to learn to love her as their own daughter.
A beautifully moving and nostalgic film, paralleling the director’s own childhood experience, this expertly crafted, distinctive tale is realised with a heartfelt sensitivity and a keen sense of visual poetry.