Blame It On Fidel

Blame it on Fidel is a period piece, of sorts, set at the beginning of the 1970s and revolving around the life of nine-year-old Anna (played with vim and spoilt vigour... more >

Blame it on Fidel is a period piece, of sorts, set at the beginning of the 1970s and revolving around the life of nine-year-old Anna (played with vim and spoilt vigour by the delightful Nina Kervel). The kind of girl who likes to eat fruit with a knife and fork (and teach others to do likewise), Anna is put out by the arrival of her newly widowed aunt and cousin who are themselves fleeing Spain and Franco and are – according to the spiteful exiled Cuban housemaid – communist barbarians. For Anna, however, worse is
to come: her father and mother (Stefano Accorsi and Julie Depardieu, respectively) are radicalised overnight, shifting from their luxury apartment to something more low-rent and authentic, campaigning for Allende and making room for a boatload of bearded revolutionaries. Pitched from pillar to post (the school she adores is now ‘bourgeois’, Mickey Mouse is a ‘fascist’), Anna tries to make sense of the new and not necessarily improved world in which she finds herself. Adapted from the novel by Domitilla Calamai, the directorial debut from Julie Gavras treads a fine line between serious political debate and trenchant moral comedy. Think
Woody Allen by way of Louis Malle, if you will. All told, highly
recommended.

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Film Details

Cast

Stefano Accorsi, Julie Depardieu, Nina Kervel

Technical Details