For a while now, up and coming French actress Léa Seydoux has been threatening to make her mark internationally, even taking on small parts in Hollywood films such as "Robin Hood," "Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol" and "Midnight In Paris." While those roles haven't exactly garnered the attention she might have hoped for, her big break might actually come in the form of a project closer to home with Ursula Meier's "L'enfant d'en haut" ("Sister"), which is already developing strong buzz on the festival circuit.
The film premiered at the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year where it won the Silver Bear, and when it eventually hit American shores at the L.A. Film Festival, our review had great things to say, noting that Meier had crafted "a mesmerizing and believable world for the complex and intriguing lead characters to inhabit. What begins as a lighthearted slice-of-life film transforms into a much darker, much deeper character exploration after a sudden twist in the storyline."
Also featuring Kacey Mottet Klein, Martin Compston, Jean-François Stévenin and "The X-Files" star Gillian Anderson, the film tells the story of 12-year-old Simon who resides at a ski resort and hustles wealthy guests to support his sister. Trailer, posters and full synopsis for the pic below — the film hits theaters on October 12th:
Every day, twelve-year-old Simon takes the cable car up to the mountains where the slopes bristle with the hustle and bustle of winter season tourists. He pokes about in hotel wardrobes and changing rooms looking for something to eat in rucksacks, but what he’s really after are skis that he can turn into cash. Whenever he talks to holidaymakers or hotel staff, he tells them that his parents died in a car accident and that he lives alone with his sister. Louis, the young woman who lives in the apartment in the valley has no idea what Simon gets up to all day long. Their odd relationship alternates between quarrels and tenderness.
Ursula Meier sets her second feature-length drama against the backdrop of a popular tourist destination in the Alps. From the broad, anonymous mass of people, she has distilled the story of one child who believes he has found a way to offset his breadline existence. This portrait of a boy on the brink of puberty, poised between deceit and an unquenchable need for love and tenderness, is at the same time an exploration of the contradictions and hidden depths of an ostensibly prosperous world.
