Ava

28th STOCKHOLM INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL. DAY 1, NOV 8th 2017. Swedish premiere of "Ava" (2017).

A beautiful, well-paced drama about being on the border between childhood and adulthood, "Ava" is a promising feature debut from Léa Mysius.

There is fine acting, a strong screenplay, good direction and deep emotions of fear, frustration, curiosity, excitement, joy, love, sensuality, as 13-year-old Ava learns she has an incurable eye disease that will soon make her blind. She tries to cope with it as best she can -- all while falling in love with an older boy and running away from home, during a hot summer on the French Atlantic coast.

I found it bold in many ways. I'm not sure of having already seen something like this. Violence boldness, artistic boldness, hippie boldness, yes, but every day boldness ? boldness to accept one's weakness ? Boldness to accept my weakness ? I found it surprising in many ways but it goes with it. It's funny, crazy, sexy, cool, true. I do not want to spoil any surprises so I won't say much more. I don't know if it's a great movie, but for me it is a memorable movie as I do not often see.

I liked it: the film operates with loads and loads of symbols without becoming tedious or cumbersome. Instead, the viewer is invited to be curious about these ideas and dive deeper into the layers. Casting is spot on, characters are good, and I simply adore the soundtrack. What made me strangely detached early on was the fact that I simply did not find the film believable, and even the music score could hardly drag me back into the plot. Obviously, I did not expect reality from it. And I love fairy tales, by the way. Yet somehow the characters' motivations and the way these are fit into the narrative leave things to be desired. They felt incomplete. It's a very good movie, but as it is mighty close to being great, a slightly frustrating one at the same time.

For a debut feature, this is nicely done, with some pleasantly-surprising turns that help avoid the cliches of the coming-of-age-rebellion trope.

As someone else has said, she doesn't really need to be 13 for the plot to work. Something like 16 would have been fine, and the fact that Noee was older than 13 at the time of filming would not have been so obvious. However, IMHO, she is excellent in this - even better than in Slalom, which I also saw recently.

Despite the underlying tragedy of her situation (horrifying disease prognosis, useless mother...), there are some nice touches of humour (loved the dog on the moped) and sweetness from the supporting characters (such as the bride).

Recommended.

AVA is set on an idyllic seaside town during a typical French summer holiday were the 13-year-old title hero learns that her sight is deteriorating, (brilliant performance from Noee Abita who was 18 at the time for obvious reasons). This dilemma forces Ava to create her own world, where along the way she befriends a young Gypsy boy and his dog. They form a pact and hit the road as they make a run from the law and life itself. The young director, Lea Mysius, mixes it up with neorealism, a bit of pop culture, and some surreal moments, capturing perfectly the mindset of a teenager going through puberty during her pending ordeal.