Summer 1993

Carla Simón, Spain 2017,  97 minutes

Rating: PG  adult themes

Catalan director Carla Simón’s feature debut is autobiographical. Her memory of childish schemes and dreams is acute and bracingly free of sentimentality. The performances she’s drawn from the two children are miraculously unaffected, so when Frida leads her trusting little charge up the garden path you may want to leap into the movie and sort things out. What’s just as piercing is the filmmaker’s appreciation of the kindness, imagination and patience required of her aunt and uncle to convince a defiant little orphan that she was important and loved.