SISTER
Simon (Kacey Mottet Klein) lives with his older sister (Léa Seydoux) in a housing complex below a luxury Swiss ski resort. With his sister drifting in and out of jobs and relationships, twelve-year-old Simon takes on the responsibility of providing for the two of them. Every day, he takes the lift up to the opulent ski world above, stealing equipment from rich tourists to resell to the local kids down in the valley. He is able to keep their little family afloat with his small-time hustles and his sister is thankful for the money he brings in. But, when Simon partners with a crooked British seasonal worker, he begins to lose his boundaries, affecting his relationship with his sister and plummeting him into dangerous territory.
Shortlisted for Academy Award for Best Foreign Picture!
"The influence of Belgian masters Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne's documentary eye for youth on the margins is evident in Ursula Meier's calmly heartbreaking drama."
-Lisa Schwarzbaum, ENTERTAINMENT WEELY
"A cool yet compassionate look at two people bound by love and shared struggles in a world of haves and have-nots."
-Manohla Dargis, NEW YORK TIMES
"A work of precocious depth by Ursula Meier, who's nervy enough to enlist the Alps as a metaphor, and inject a story of family dysfunction with just enough politics to make it a parable."
-John Anderson, WALL STREET JOURNAL
"A penetrating study of familial bonds, quietly devastating in parts, beautiful on whole and destined to make you fall in love with a practiced and entirely amoral preteen thief."
-Mary F. Pols, TIME
Directed by Ursula Meier. Unrated.
Switzerland/France, 2012, Digital Projection, 97minutes, Color, French with English Subtitles.