HERMAN

br /> HERMAN is the warm-hearted story of an 11-year-old boy who encounters a stumbling block on the path to puberty premature (and rapid) hair loss. The setting is Oslo, 1961, a time when people didn't have pat answers for personal problems, and young Herman, poised on the verge of adolescence, confronts more than the usual problems affecting children of that age. His parents and doctors have no remedy, and his schoolmates use Herman as an easy target for their malicious humor. It isn't until he encounters Ruby, a red-haired clarinet player, that things begin to look up. Herman's dilemma is, of course, a metaphor for the difficulties we all confronted at the onset of puberty. HERMAN is a delightful film not about a boy loosing his hair, but about how he deals with it. In Norwegian with English subtitles.-Seattle International Film Festival.