Tomboy (2010)

Céline Sciamma's Tomboy is a bittersweet tale about a ten-year old kid who grows up to realize that she lives in a highly gendered world. Laure moves to a new place with parents and little sister. S/he goes out to play and meets Lisa, who soon becomes friends with - Mikael. Laure hangs out with the other kids, plays football and games. They think Mikael is a cool boy and a tough kid (Laure beats up the child who was unkind to her/his sister). What we have here is a simple story about what it is to be young. The film manages to capture those awfully fragile moments of being hurt and insecure - it is rather moving actually. It deals with gender in a clear, but no simplistic, way. We are shown a set-up where gender matters, where small boys play football with each other, while the girls are offered the role of spectators. A quiet boy like Mikael soon earns the badge "you are not like the other boys". It's a sad, heartbreaking story, always told gracefully without being blunt or trying to make things easy. I also admire the film for letting kids be kids, with silly stunts, small gestures and big gestures. The film speaks from the children's perspective, and not the perspective of adults who think they have all the answers. The adults in the film, for a start, don't. I have rarely seen a more moving portrait of the relation between parents and children. We have the father who lets his kid be - he loves her unconditionally. The mother has obvious problems with the kid's "conforming" and this is one of the few places on film where an adult is so clearly also feeling like a scared child, with all the messy emotions that involves. Sciamma really brings out the vulnerability that many situations contain, the vulnerability of not knowing what a situation has turned one into, and the vulnerability expressed by people who think they know. It's a beautiful little film. You should see it.