The Girl

THE GIRL in this story is not yet ten, a fact that prevents her from going with her parents on a humanitarian mission to Africa. It's the summer of 1981 and now she faces a long holiday in her family's remote vacation house with her Aunt Anna, with nothing to do but attend swimming lessons. She's a solemn child, given to deliberate study of nature and the people around her. Anna, however, is an immature young woman who drinks, listens to loud music, and dreams of being with her boyfriend. The girl devises a way to get the annoying Anna to leave, restoring the solitude and dignity of the house. She seeks out neighborhood children, but the older girls are boy-crazy. So the girl befriends a farm boy who's a loner like she is. Over the course of the summer, the girl's eyes are opened to the absurd and often carnal world of adults; but she's not ready to go to that place yet, retreating instead into her own more spiritual realm. THE GIRL is a film about children for grownups. Dreamy and muted, it evokes a wonderful sense of time and place, like the memory of one's own childhood. (In Swedish with subtitles) – B.B.