SUMMER 1993 New Auteurs

When her mother dies of an AIDS-related illness, six-year-old Frida has to leave her home in Barcelona to live with her uncle, aunt and four-year-old cousin in the Catalan countryside. Though surrounded by loving and understanding family members, with visits from her religious grandmother, the adjustment is hard for everyone. Amid the film’s striking lack of sentimentality and sun-kissed imagery that belie the heartbreak under the surface, Frida and her new family deal with the complex and contradictory emotions of an orphaned child that unpredictably arise every day. Written and directed by Carla Simón, and based on her own life story, SUMMER 1993 is an unforgettable reminder that the only certainty in life is not only death, but that life itself continues. – Sudeep Sharma