TOMBOY

Celine Sciamma

1h 24m  •  2011

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Review by Beatrice On 27-Jun-2023

Laure is a 10-year-old girl, she has a younger sister ( Jeanna) with whom she has a great understanding.

They are very different, the little one extremely feminine, she, a tomboy, as the title reveals.

The mom is pregnant and the dad plays a lot with both daughters.

The family has just moved, and while the little sister spends a lot of time at home before school starts, she, rather reclusive and taciturn, goes out for walks.

She meets a little girl from the neighborhood who mistakes her for a boy and asks her name.

Laure somewhat perplexed, however, does not hesitate to give her a male name: from now on with all the friends she will meet she will be Michael the newcomer in the neighborhood; she will make herself accepted by everyone by also imposing her temperament and her skill in soccer and wrestling.

Despite his relationship with his sister, a charming figure with whom he has great complicity and intimacy, the truth looms large.

The scene in which Jeanna boasts to her friends that she has a brother who loves only her and defends her in any situation is extraordinary....

The mother discovers Laure's secret and takes action.

An extraordinary film on the theme of childhood, often portrayed as an age of innocence but presented as a stage of life full of sensuality and ambiguous emotions.

A delicate film about sexual and gender identity: about sisterly complicity, unconditional love and rules, those of honesty and responsibility.

Cultural stereotypes force one to imagine childhood as an asexual age on which expectations, those of the adult world, are imposed.

Magical interpretations of the sisters, extremely significant the way in which the theme is treated.

A film that opens fundamental questions about each individual's own definition of sexuality.

Not to be missed

27-Jun-2023 by Beatrice