Starring: Kacey Mottet Klein, Léa Seydoux, Martin Compston, Gillian Anderson
Director: Ursula Meier
Rating: 3/5
Sister is playing in the Love category at the BFI London Film Festival and is one of the most touching movies that looks at family dynamics.
Simon (Klein) lives with his older sister (Seydoux) in a flat below a luxury ski resort in Switzerland.
Simon is forced to steal from the resort as a way of providing for the two of them as his sister struggles to hold down a job.
But, when Simon partners with a crooked British seasonal worker, he begins to lose his boundaries.
This is an emotional look at family bonds and how these two people are joined together by love - even though they find each other an inconvenience.
Kacey Mottet Klein delivers a stunning performance as Simon, a young boy who is older than his years who is forced to step up and find a way to survive.
Simon is charismatic and charming throughout and is a character who always gets back on his feet when he as been knocked down.
It is also a fine performance from Léa Seydoux as the troubled Louise who has a sad love/rate relationship with Simon.
She is has a love for him but she also calls him a 'ball and chain' and she is torn between staying with him or leaving him behind.
Director Ursula Meier has made Sister an incredibly intimate drama with this relationship as its central focus and doesn't really stray from this - and this works really well.
Martin Compston and Gillian Anderson both make very interesting appearances in the movie; Compston as a man who encourages Simon to continue stealing while Anderson is a mother figure that Simon so desperately craves.
And while they may not have a lot of screen time their characters are pivotal to the story and Anderson in particular is very good.
This is a very evocative movie that tackles some interesting subjects and yet Meier does this with a real subtlety and sensibility.
And yet there is a real sadness that hangs over this film from start to finish and you see that Louise and Simon are two people that are stuck in a life and a situation from which there is no real escape.
Sister is a touching movie that never passes judgement on any of the characters involved no matter what choices they make.
The BFI London Film Festival runs 10-21 October
Sister is released October 26
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in BFI Sister Léa Seydoux