The Other Side of Sunday

The very first lesson the Bible teaches is: Whatever is forbidden, becomes the desired. This ageless message for overly strict parents is explored in this story about the daughter of a fervent Norwegian minister (Borgen Langhelle), 16-year-old Maria (Marie Theisen), who fears not getting the chance to live more than dying and burning in hell. Maria wants to wear make-up and earrings, dance, listen to popular music and go to the café (a place Maria's father refers to as "the den of sin"). She wants to meet boys, go out with friends, swim naked in the pond, and have breasts that point upwards. Fearing she is doomed to join the ranks of old church ladies, Maria rebels against her father's unyielding, repressive discipline with the one weapon she has at her disposal: the refusal to be confirmed a Christian and take communion. Based on Reidun Nortvedt's novel Sunday and filmed in rich European-style, The Other Side of Sunday takes a warm, humorous look at the blossoming of a child into a woman, as Maria struggles against a forbidding society to discover her sexual identity and exert her individuality. Highly recommended. (P. Kirk)