Flickan (The Girl)

A final report from the Minneapolis St. Paul International film festival.

This Swedish film features a 9 year old girl with long red hair, living alone in a villa- and it isn't Pippi Longstocking! It is, rather, a serious look at a girl's late childhood, directed by Fredrik Edfeldt and shot with an extremely sensitive touch by Dutch cimematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema. It shows the girl becoming aware of the forces which have begun to change her life. It also shows the special kind of loneliness which can occur in a child who is able understand things that she is still too young to take part in. The plot seems a bit contrived at first, but this is one of those movies which grows on you as it progresses. It isn't sentimental in the slightest, making it all the more touching.

Highly recommended.