Foreign Letters

Writer-director Ela Thier's semi-autobiographical drama Foreign Letters sheds a little light on the immigrant experience for children coming to the U.S. Set in the pre-digital 1980s, the story finds 12-year-old schoolgirl Ellie (Noa Rotstein) and her family of war resisters freshly arrived from Israel to an American city. While the move has its pluses and minuses for Ellie's parents, for Ellie it means going to school, where she struggles with English as a second language and feels isolated. Things change, however, when Ellie meets classmate Thuy (Dalena Le), a Vietnamese refugee who is so embarrassed about living in near-poverty that she purposely avoids friendships. But Ellie persists and the two end up working through conflicts and differences, their bond made stronger by common experience. Thier, who also plays Ellie's mother, brings several layers of understanding to these characters, who are also trying to cope with ordinary ‘tween developmental issues in a literally foreign context. Recommended. (T. Keogh)