Latest Film Recommendation: Blame it On Fidel

Julie Grava's "Blame it on Fidel" is a delicately complex showpiece. It illustrates the maturation of a young girl whose parents give up a life of wealth and comfort for one that rings truer to their own ideals. The film's main character, 9-year-old Anna, undergoes a transformation throughout its scenes, struggling at first with the loss of her big house and polished view of reality. Forced by her parents to exchange the life she once knew for one that is always brimming with obtuse visitors and rustled by political activism, Anna comes to reckon with a slew of issues she never previously considered.

Through the eyes of a child, this movie wrestles with big questions. As Anna considers her parents' involvement in the Allende movement and her own Spanish heritage, she bumps alongside the issues of freedom and oppression. The outside world that once felt far away hits home when members' of Anna's own family suffer and when women with heart-wrenching and confusing stories unfold their tragedies in Anna's living room. Anna's prior way of life, steeped in French traditionalism and a laissez-faire approach to inequality, had its virtues, which Anna recognizes and esteems long after her parents have given them up. Yet, as Anna is jolted onto a different path she increasingly begins to ask "what does true freedom look like?" and also "what does true justice look like?" Along the way, she unlearns the myth that grown-ups are always right and tries to find meaning amidst conflicting worldviews that come visiting from multiple angles.

Whether viewers follow the filmmaker's political leanings or not, there is much to be gleaned from this piece. Set in Paris during the early '70s, beautifully shot and scored to boot, it begs viewers to ask a similar set of questions as young Anna. While Anna's rosy world unmasks itself in this film, the grime and dirt of poverty and injustice surface. Without too much resolution, but just enough to offer hope, it leaves both Anna and the onlooker to ponder "how should this be?" and more pointedly "where do we go from here?" If you have an hour or two and can manage the subtitles, its well worth a watch.