Summer, 1993

Summer, 1993 won the Best First Feature Award at the 2017 Berlinale, and since then it has carried on delighting audiences around the world at international film festivals. This tale of a 6-year-old girl from Barcelona who has to go live with her aunt and uncle in the countryside, is both quietly beautiful and razor sharp in equal measures.

Frida has lost both of her parents, and has to leave her home to stay with relatives. They display an almost boundless empathy for their young niece, but Frida carries an unfathomable pain and grief in her tiny body. Her unarticulated cries for help and closeness are expressed in a destructive manner, and threatens the family peace – including Frida’s 3-year-old cousin.

The direction of Carla Simón is tender yet sharp, and she gives us an unsentimental family tale which tries to get to the core of what a family really is. Summer, 1993 is an intimate, contemplative, and ultimately warm film, which will not leave any parent unaffected.