A Part of You

Agnes has grown up in her sister's shadow and is invisible at school. When her sister dies in an accident everyone around her starts paying attention, and she becomes popular for the first time. The pain of the loss and the unexpected attention arrive together and cannot be separated. Sigge Eklund directed; it was made in Sweden and released through Netflix. Its idea is uncomfortable and honest: grief is never pure. Agnes beginning to occupy her sister's place is shown as a process that is both natural and guilt-producing. The telling uses the youth film template, with parties, social media and school hierarchy as its ground. The tone is measured and the dramatic underlining low, keeping the usual calm of Swedish youth cinema. Its weakness is the supporting characters; the family's grief is barely opened and the film stays inside one girl's view. Who it is for: viewers who like Scandinavian drama about grief and adolescence. Who it is not for: anyone expecting a classic friendship or romance; the film keeps breaking that.