In the Swiss Alps, Simon, a 12-year-old boy disguised as a skier, robs wealthy tourists and sells the loot to his peers in the gray industrial neighborhoods of the lowlands.
He also carries out contract thefts, stealing branded goggles, hats, gloves and skis.
He also does not miss the food he brings home every night to his older sister Louise, a pretty lurcher with odd jobs who often disappears with different men.
Simon feels very responsible to Louise and often gives the money from the thefts to her to go and buy something new.
One night he will ask her to sleep together and offer her money to do so, only then will we understand the strange secret they are hiding....
There is the memory of a true story behind this script, and "l'enfant d'en haut" or the child from above of the original title stands for the impossible attempt to unite two worlds, that of the peaks of rich tourists and that of the plains of the poor.
Simon disguises himself as rich and likes to look "high," wants to redeem something and compulsively feeds on theft as if to fill a lack that is not only material. The money seems to be a system of compensation for something he has not had and cannot have, but that cannot be revealed...because the film must be seen and experienced in its bare intrusiveness, in its presentation of a repetitive, unpredictable if overt everydayness.
A cinema reminiscent of the Dardenne brothers of "Rosetta" for example; a rough film that cannot slide over you but sticks on your chest taking your breath away at times.
Only the last scene opens a hope that is perhaps only the illusion of a necessary cathartic effect.
Ursula Meier
Delphine Coulin Muriel Coulin
Silvio Soldini
Alejandro Rojas E Juan Sebastián Vásquez
Rupert Wyatt
Kornél Mundruczó
Sion Sono
