Wendy Ide hjá Screen skrifar um Sumarbörn Guðrúnar Ragnarsdóttur frá kvikmyndahátíðinni í Tallinn í Eistlandi og segir hana litla en ljúfa mynd sem sé lyft upp af heillandi frammistöðu ungu leikaranna.
Ide segir meðal annars:
The directorial debut of documentary filmmaker Guđrun Ragnarsdóttir is a charming, if slight picture, elevated by appealing performances from its young cast and should continue to engage further festival audiences following its premier at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival. A cluttered third act might hamper the chances of the film registering with an arthouse theatrical crowd, however the winning combination of Icelandic scenery and cute kids certainly won’t hurt.
Og ennfremur:
There’s a characteristically Icelandic matter-of-fact approach to magic and fantasy here. Karis is chided that ’’the people of the lava” will come for him if he doesn’t behave. Later, Eydis strikes up a friendship with a quiet boy who rides a pony tut, as one of the staff spitefully points out, he’s probably the ghost of a child who froze to death in the marshlands several years before. Eydis fiercely believes that what she dreams – night time visits from her mother, the ability to fly – is in some way real. But as the weeks go by with no sign of her parents, Eydis begins to lose hope.
The film taps into that same raw yearning for family and stability which was mined so effectively in this year’s French animation My Life As A Courgette. And while the conclusion doesn’t have quite the same elevating, feel-good punch of that picture, it ends with a reassuring upbeat note of tentative hope.
Sjá nánar hér: ‘Summer Children’: Tallinn Review
