I think the defining characteristic of this work is the realism of the interaction between the kids, the subtle signs that neither them nor us can fully decipher. Furtive looks, lost stares, quick touches, silences awaiting for a sign of clarification, inexplicable jealousy, sudden rage or desperation, sense of infinite powerlessness...
The plot might be clear and obvious, as others have noted, but these kids don't march through their destiny, they grope in the dark. They are mostly silent, yet their actions and gestures speak volumes. The director doesn't put our truths in their mouths.
Yet everyone watching can re-live the kids' feelings as their own: the ambiguity produces a self-identification so complete as to be excruciating like a transmutation. It's hard to explain how catarthic and exhausting it was to watch this film. Towards the end, at every scene the director kept hammering me. The final scene is open-ended, but tells us that there is a future and life goes on.
Only the adults are explicit signs of what the kids fear and cannot name: oldness and loneliness, rejection of the foreigner, violence against the different, selfish exploitation of the other.
Some words too much are spoken, some others do not manage to get out, screams emerge. Only the artist sister has the courage and the good sense to say aloud the truth.
But in the end, even the "ugliest" and rejected fish finds its waters to live again.
The plot might be clear and obvious, as others have noted, but these kids don't march through their destiny, they grope in the dark. They are mostly silent, yet their actions and gestures speak volumes. The director doesn't put our truths in their mouths.
Yet everyone watching can re-live the kids' feelings as their own: the ambiguity produces a self-identification so complete as to be excruciating like a transmutation. It's hard to explain how catarthic and exhausting it was to watch this film. Towards the end, at every scene the director kept hammering me. The final scene is open-ended, but tells us that there is a future and life goes on.
Only the adults are explicit signs of what the kids fear and cannot name: oldness and loneliness, rejection of the foreigner, violence against the different, selfish exploitation of the other.
Some words too much are spoken, some others do not manage to get out, screams emerge. Only the artist sister has the courage and the good sense to say aloud the truth.
But in the end, even the "ugliest" and rejected fish finds its waters to live again.