Summer 1993

Boxes are stacked in the living room of six-year-old Frida's (Laia Artigas) house as she prepares to go and live with her Uncle Esteve (David Verdaguer, "Anchor and Hope") and Aunt Marga (Bruna Cusi, "Uncertain Glory") after the death of her mother. Spain's submission for Best Foreign Film at the 2018 Oscars, director Carla Simón's autobiographical Summer 1993 (Estiu 1993) is a sensitive and nuanced hymn to childhood whose magic is interrupted by the sudden dark intrusions of the adult world. As the foundations of six-year-old Frida's belief in the world as a safe place are shattered, she must come to terms with living with a new set of parents in a rural Catalan village far removed from the city of Barcelona in which she grew up.

Calling on her childhood recollections, Simón's film consists of vignettes focusing on Frida's ability to adjust to her profoundly changed life. The relationship between Frida and her three-year-old cousin Anna (Paula Robles) alternates between the joy of spontaneous play, and Frida's acting out her grief in ways that threaten Anna's well being. From having fun playing in the bathtub to play acting as grown-ups and to joining a local Basque Carnival, the performances are so natural that they seem improvised. Though Esteve and Marga are warm people who are generous in their love, Frida is tentative and withdrawn. A visit to a doctor for testing show their concern about Frida carrying the AIDS virus (which it is hinted her mother died from), but the significance of the visit does not register on the child.

Emotions bubbling beneath the surface do not appear until a visit by Frida's grandparents Avi and Avia (Fermí Reixach, "Night and Day," TV series and Isabel Rocatti, "El dia de mañana," TV series). Prompted by her grandmother's focus on praying, Frida sneaks out of the house at night to leave gifts for her mother in the woods near the statue of the Virgin Mary, but confides in no one. The grandparent's visit is traumatic for Frida, however. Despite their disparaging comments about their daughter's lifestyle expressed in Frida's presence, she desperately wants to go home with them and has to be physically restrained by her uncle. As her anger begins to surface, Frida uses Anna as a target of her distress, telling her cousin that she has so many dolls because her parents loved her so much.

She also encourages Anna to jump into a pool with her even though she knows the water is above her head. In an even scarier incident, Frida leaves Anna by herself in the woods, telling her to wait there until she comes back. When she doesn't return, Marga panics while Anna falls and breaks her arm causing Marga to say that Frida is used to getting her own way and needs greater discipline, telling Esteve, "That girl has no morals." Having overheard the conversation, Frida decides to run away, heartbreakingly telling Anna that "no one loves me here." Led by Artigas' remarkably expressive performance, Simón guides the film to its stunning conclusion with a sure hand that avoids sentimentality, relying only on the resilience of childhood innocence and the impeccable strength of love to achieve its results.

One of the most beautiful films I've seen in recent memory. The gorgeous cinematography provides a backdrop for a look at loss through the eyes of a child, in this case played by Laia Artigas who gives a truly arresting performance

The film has been compared to other Spanish classics that feature child protagonists like Cría Cuervos and The Spirit of the Beehive. While I thoroughly enjoyed what appears to be a pretty clear nod to Cría Cuervos in the scene where the little girls are "playing adults," this film certainly stands on its own.

Also, although I've seen relatively few films in Catalan, this has undoubtedly been my favorite, so I'd say this also qualifies as a triumph for Catalan cinema!

Highly recommended.

This is a visual narration of the child's mentality on family, loss, life, game and death. I mostly loved that the movie avoids making audience put in a ultra-sensitive position. The movie tells its story by gently touching our emotions although it is very easy to fall into trap of agitation, with a naturally sorrowful story.

Very delicate Catalan movie about an orphan girl whom an uncle and his wife take care of, together with the child's cousin. Although living with a good family who gives her love, she suffers, is jealous about the other girl, lies and has michievous attitide, feels revolted. Not action-oriented, the story is however deep in dealing with all feelings involved, and all actors are very convincing, inclusing the children. As the movies advances we know a little more about the girl's mother. It is also an excelent film about being a child. Worth watching.

It's really sad & not promising for humanity when people view a magnificent film like this & call it boring. It shows how our society, & especially school & the unconscionable entertainment industry, cater to the lowest levels of human nature, ignoring the pain, the love, & the good that we have but often don't know how to share or express.

Films like this can provide a genuine education at any level, with teachers serving as discussion leaders to help children express their pain, deal with their fears, & learn to appreciate one another while dealing with their differences & becoming supportive rather than competing, dominating, or constantly defeating one another as the morally bankrupt western civilization teaches them now.