French-Swiss film director Ursula Meier turns a pedestrian concept into a thought-provoking spectacle in Sister (French: L’Enfant d’en haut), a compelling coming of age story set in a posh Swiss Alps ski resort. A dark story sprinkled with wisps of levity, Sister tells the story of a clever young boy in the early stages of adolescence who schemes and steals to care for his emotionally tormented older sister. Simon (Kacey Mottet Klein ) spends most of his days at a posh ski resort, where he regularly pilfers skis and other supplies for sale to bargain-hunters. He spends the rest of his time trying to placate his sister Louise (Léa Seydoux), as she drifts aimlessly through life, unemployed and unable to sustain meaningful relationships. Meier adroitly explores Simon’s less than ideal life, slowly teasing out complex motives from shifting perspectives, all the while leaving morality calls for viewers to make themselves.
Simon steals; but is it for a good cause? He must find some means of living. He contributes to his sister’s downward spiral by sustaining her with money. Does he know he is an enabler? Should he know any better? He is but a kid. And what of Louise? Is she really as evil as she seems? Sensitive to the social issues at play, Meier and co-writer Antoine Jaccoud rightly resist the temptation to offer easy answers. The result: an engaging film where characters feel very real, and and where tension finds resolution long after the film has ended.
Meier effectively captures Simon’s point of view through the use of a mixture of close and medium shots tinted blue, depicting how bleak and tiny Simon’s world is in the mountain retreat. Its is near the end of the movie, when Ski season has ended and Simon discovers life is pregnant with possibilities, that Meier utilizes wide shots to revealing the lush vastness of Simon’s surroundings.
Child actor Klein (who played the younger brother in Meier’s Home) skillfully portrays a character both sly and disarmingly sensitive. In a one on one with both Meier and Klein at the Swiss Consulate General’s house in Los Angeles, he told Popdecay that playing Simon was a pleasure not without challenges. He struggled to lift the skis, he joked. Meier added that Klein performed as a professional, quickly grasping the complexities of Simon’s character and of the script.
Meier explained her inspiration for writing Sister. “He was a valet at a ski resort,” she said. “There were rumors circulating around and people said he was a thief.” She wondered what his life must have been like as she wrote Sister. Sister screens tonight at the Los Angeles Film Festival at 7:10pm as part of the International Showcase.
Sister
(Switzerland , 2012, 97min, Color)
In French with English subtitles
North AmericanPremiere
DIR:Ursula Meier
Executive Producer: Andre Bouvard
Producers: Denis Freyd, Ruth Waldburger
Screenwriters: Antoine Jaccoud, Ursula Meier
Cinematographer: Agnès Godard
Editor: Nelly Quettier
Music: John Parish
Cast: Léa Seydoux, Kacey Mottet Klein, Gillian Anderson