"Blame it on Fidel"
Wow, what a picture. Be prepared when attending Traverse City Film Festival to read subtitles. It becomes easy and the 'context' of the film is not a burden to follow. It sort of becomes a way of viewing. I carry that skill now and there is no doubt of attending a film even if the advertisement states, "English subtitles." It's kinda like, 'Oh good' a foreign film. I look forward to a fresh view on a subject.
This film was a 'waist high view' of activism. Loved every minute of it. The film revolves around the life of a nine year old child. She is wonderful and so are her piers. She is faced many hurdles in her life.
The story takes place in France in the early 1970s and her parents are very involved in political activism regarding the government of Chile. She attends a Catholic school and is not allowed to attend the religous classes as her parents object to them, but, like the other aspects of the education there. She even has trouble being part of a swim team because of a language barrier and in a 'relay' swim she does two legs of the relay leaving her team mate at the end of the pool. She finishes the relay first only to lose the meet because she didn't allow her teammate to take over the second leg of the race. She never realized it until the race was over. It was a charming scene in the film.
She was lovely, a pretty young girl, very smart and all she wanted was to be accepted. She was always furious with her parents for one reason or another and home was a tug of war with a sympathic younger brother that kept her secrets when she played pranks on her parents.
She grows up very quickly as a child in an activist family. The family is very sincere. She overcomes her hurdles and accepts the 'heart' of her family to move 'justice' forward at the expense of being difficult and different. She has an incredible character that continually expands during the film and finds acceptance 'as she is' among her piers. Her self respect cannot be understated. And interestingly enough. She does not 'claim' that self respect 'by herself' but 'finds' it through her parents whom value her opinion as much as their own. It was a wonderful film.
