is a delicate and profound Swedish film with always
a hint of peril lurking on its edges. The title character is nine years old and
is left behind at the family house in the Swedish countryside while her parents
and brother try volunteer work in Africa. But no problem, the dad will get his
totally crazy sister to look after the girl so everything will be fine! The
sister is one of those people who say things like, “I have to take care of
myself now…” and she soon disappears on a sailing trip with her boyfriend
(secretly instigated by the girl, who sends a ransom note style letter to the
boyfriend). The girl is not sneaky but terribly young and naïve and she would
rather look after herself than look after herself and her aunt. At first she
feels totally capable but as time passes she starts to go a little wild –
covering herself in dirt, mixing cocktails and telling lies. She admits to her
neighbor “I’m pretty lonely.”

is a reminder how little time alone is needed before
children start to develop in weird ways. In this way it reminded me a little of
the Scottish film
(which concerns a young boy left mostly to his own
devices) but with less of a cruel, dangerous edge. There is cruelty in this
film, introduced by a girl in town and her cosmopolitan cousin who lip synch
Abba songs and terrorize a local boy.

In great films there is a transcendent moment when the
cinematography, acting, story and underlying message all coalesce into a
dizzying emotional impact. In
that moment involves an emergency
landing by a hot air balloon. As the nameless girl Blanca Engström is startling
and her increasingly dirt tangled strawberry blonde hair is an indicator of how
far she is from civilization.

There is a weird trailer interview thing here. It's on on the 7th at 1pm and the 8th at 7:15, both at the Granville.