The Girl

The summer of 1981. The family is getting ready to travel to Africa. The ten-year-old is judged too difficult to bring and is left with an aunt. A few days later the aunt walks out. The girl is alone in the house and tells nobody. She cooks for herself, sets up her own routine, counts the days. She deals with the neighbours' children, a drunk neighbour, and her own fear. Being alone feels like freedom at first, and then it turns into something else. Fredrik Edfeldt directs the Swedish film; ninety-five minutes, with Blanca Engström as the girl. It is Edfeldt's first feature. It is filmed at the child's height; adults often do not fit fully into the frame, and there is no narrator to explain what is going on.