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BLAME IT ON FIDEL
Directed by: Julie Gavras.
Produced by: Sylvie Pialat.
Written by: Gavras, Arnaud Cathrine, Jacques Fieschi, Olivier Dazat, based on the novel Tutta Colpa di Fidel by Domitilla Calamai.
Director of Photography: Nathalie Durand.
Edited by: Pauline Dairou.
Music by: Aramnd Amar.
Released by: Koch Lorber Films.
Language: French with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: France/Italy. 99 min. Not Rated.
With: Julie Depardieu, Stefano Accorsi, Nina Kervel, Benjamin Feuillet & Marie-Noëlle Bordeaux.

From the brisk manner in which nine-year-old Anna (Nina Kervel, in her film debut) plops herself onto her father’s lap, you know she’s nothing but territorial. She looks upon her cousin, a refugee from Franco’s Spain, as a foreign invader, and she thrives in her self-imposed rigid schedule: her hair must be combed by the family maid after swim practice; bath time with her younger brother always precedes dinner. Whether in history or divinity class, she basks in the unbending rules of her all-girls Catholic girl.

She finds the Cuban communist leader at fault when her family has to move from its large suburban home to a small Parisian apartment, too compact for them to completely unpack all of their boxes. The new home (tellingly painted red) becomes a hotbed for political activism. Against the backdrop of epic political changes in 1970, Anna learns to loathe Castro from the family maid, Filomena (Marie-Noëlle Bordeaux), a Cuban exile. But given that her father has quit his job as an upper-class attorney and gone off to Chile to assist socialist Salvador Allende’s presidential campaign, it’s not surprising when Filomena is replaced by another refugee, a Greek who’s fled her country’s military government. And while dad’s on his crusade, Anna’s journalist mother, an advocate for free abortion and contraception, interviews women at home behind closed doors.

Without potshots to the right or left, director Julie Gavras (daughter of director Costa Gavras) patronizes neither her confrontational and persistent heroine nor the girl’s parents, save for one brief and humorous comment by the father that Mickey Mouse is a fascist. The buoyant film is all about being political in the general sense, learning to make your own informed decisions. Unlike many films that look back on this time period with disappointment (Regular Lovers), or explore its dark underside (The Best of Youth or Good Morning, Night), Gavras takes an affectionate look back at the progressive idealism of the era. Even with the occasional simplistic diatribe – Vietnam is where kids are burned by Napalm, according to mom – the parents are not breathing bumper stickers.

In a riveting scene, the eyes of the mother, Marie (Julie Depardieu), fill with alarm as she notices Anna in the doorway, eavesdropping on a candid interview about an unwanted pregnancy. In that moment, Mom realizes she will have to trust her daughter to keep the meeting confidential and, like it or not, she’s going to have to find out sooner or later. Of course, Anna doesn’t quite understand the economic policies of a centralized government, let alone how women become pregnant.

Anna’s tenacity saves the film from falling into the precocious kids-say-the-darndest-things trap. Most important, Nina Kervel’s single-minded and non-fussy performance dares to be abrasive (take note, Abigail Breslin). That she’s in almost every frame, with the entire film resting on her shoulders, makes documentarian Gavras’s first feature even more remarkable. Kent Turner
August 3, 2007