Blame it on Fidel!

Most "coming of age" films focus rather myopically on puberty and new found sexuality. It is a rarer thing to find a film that concentrates on a child reaching the age of reason and the realization that there are "others" who have feelings too. Julie Gavras has given us this gem of a film that does just that, with a back drop of social and political unrest. It's quite a worthy study.

Nine year old Anna (a gifted Nina Kervel) has a perfect little life - doting parents, a lovely home, a wonderful nanny who cooks delicious meals and the comfort of catechism class at her private school. But when her aunt and cousin come to stay with them, Anna's world turns upside down. Her upwardly mobile parents abandon their cushy jobs and become radical political activists and all Anna can see is what is being taken away from her - they move to a small apartment and eat peasant food, she is denied religious lessons and the house is suddenly full of bearded men and crying women who talk and eat and take her parents time. Kervel is brilliant at scowling and plotting her revenge and watching her grow to take in new ideas is decidedly prickly. It's hard to root for Anna, but you'll love her all the same.

Set in France in the early 70's Blame it on Fidel! captures an interesting period in world history that I wasn't terribly familiar with, the communist revolution in Cuba followed by the socialist election of Allende in Chile. The fervor of those caught up in these new ways of thinking and the hope for a better world caused a lot of stodgy, traditional folks to think again. Told from the perspective of a child - a child emerging from the familiarity of childhood things toward the horizons of adulthood - this is a sweet metaphor. Well worth an evening... see another review here.