Summer 1993

So often the first reflex with a child who has endured a major loss is to shield him or her from pain. That’s more or less what happens to 6-year-old Frida (Laia Artigas), whose father died and mother is dying in a hospital that Frida is kept away from. Frida is full of unanswered questions that she isn’t ready to identify let alone seek clarity about. Frida is sent from her Barcelona home to live with an aunt, uncle, and young cousin on a huge plot of land—with thick and beautiful-if-spooky woods—in the Spanish countryside. Here, Frida very slowly picks up hints about the cause of her mom’s death. Disoriented and fearing further abandonment, Frida sometimes acts out in impulsive, angry ways, although she is not nearly as sociopathic as her aunt (Bruna Cusí) believes her to be. Writer-director Carla Simón is a gifted storyteller who is able to convey a lot even in such prosaic scenes as washing a dress, climbing trees, and indulging in a popsicle treat (with one in each hand). Sometimes families break apart and new, stronger configurations arise, and that is the evolutionary process deftly charted in this fine semi-autobiographical film. Recommended. (T. Keogh)