Hanna (Karine Vanasse) is nearly fourteen. She gets her first period on summer holiday at her grandparents and she wants her family, so she heads back to Montreal, to depressed mother (Pascal Bussieres) who works as a seamstress to keep the family because the father (Miki Manojlovic) a Jewish survivor of the Holocaust is a damaged man and can`t seem to hold down a job. Of value in her life is brother Paul (Alexandre Marineau), fellow student Laura and a teacher who resembles Anna Karina, the star of Jean Luc Godard`s Vivre Sa Vie. Karina`s character Nana becomes an icon in Hanna`s increasingly distraught life...Shining like a beacon in this film is the performance of young Karine Vanasse as Hanna, her clarity and generosity give the film a rivetting central core that you can`t help but connect with. And she`s surrounded by a very solid cast - interesting to see Croatian actor Miki Manojlovic from Black Cat White Cat, Cabaret Balkan as the alternately loving and hateful father. Whenever Pool lets Vanasse dominate the camera the film works, whenever it strays too far from her it falters.David`s Comments:A fine coming-of-age film by Lea Pool, with a stunning performance from Karine Vanasse in the lead. The story of a girl, desperate for affection, whose life is transformed when she sees Godard`s sublime VIVRE SA VIE is beautifully, generously handled.
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