Agony in a reunion
Eight-year-old Luca asks her father nonchalantly, 'You don't love me like you love my mom.' Jimmy a doting father, gleefully pampers her little queen, 'I love you both but I love you more.' In reply, minor Luca reasons out again complaining about her look not resembling her mother. This baffles her father.
Mascha Schilinski's feature film, 'Dark Blue Girl' is all about a dark Freudian drama. Aligning perfectly an eight-year-old girl Luca in the film, the allusions are elaborated in steps. A separated young couple, Jimmy and Hannah (played by Karsten Mielke and Artemis Chalkidou), decides to meet again to dispose of their vacation home on the picturesque island of Santorini, Athens. Luca, their only child though stays with her mother, loves and cares for her father much more than anybody else in
the world. The couple's reunion after two years rekindles their lost love, but the girl, in her attempt to win all attention of her father plays a second Juliet in the family of three.
As the parent's anxiety is further aggravated by the kid's growing stubbornness, a shroud of disappointment vitiates the atmosphere of otherwise beautiful beachside surroundings of Greece. Helena Zengel's unparalleled skill of morphing into childish obstinacy pinches really hard on the on-screen adult souls. This of course makes her acting look more spontaneous and intimidating. The engrossing cinematography, capturing some natural moments of the playful kid and some breathtaking long shots, weaves a simple but gloomy texture in a family psychodrama. Applying the Blue color theme - starting from their attire to backdrop ranging from the color of the doors and interior decors - Mascha wants to mix the crisis, the 'blues' with the darkness of minds.
If interpreted loosely, Electra Complex can lead to a deep crisis in a modern nuclear family is exactly what is observed in Mascha's debut film. But to establish the idea she somewhat forces the couple to live with the problem, feigning complete ignorance about a budding child's mental health, which looks rather imposed. However, the German film 'Dark Blue Girl', originally named 'Die Tochter' (The Daughter) has won critics' recognition for portrayal of the important development of a growing child that needs parent's special care and attention.
