Ava
2017 · Directed by Léa Mysius
Original language: French
- drama
The story
Ava, 13, is spending the summer on the Atlantic coast when she learns that she will lose her sight sooner than expected. Her mother decides to act as if everything were normal so as to spend their best summer ever. Ava confronts the problem in her own way. She steals a big black dog that belongs to a young man on the run...
What it’s like
Sun-bleached and sensual, with saturated summer light on sand, pine and skin, and a camera that stays close to faces and bodies, often handheld, so the heat and salt feel near. Sea wind and surf fill the soundtrack, with a restless, pulsing score that rises at moments of tension and drops away into open air. The mood is sultry and unsettled, a teenage summer heavy with things unsaid, its emotional register flickering between tenderness, humor and quiet dread. The pacing is loose and sensory, letting long afternoons unspool before a sharp turn. A girl losing her sight, and a mother determined to make the season feel ordinary, drive the arc; it is a story of love that tries to hold on too tightly and a young person learning to see more clearly. Intensity is moderate: some confrontation and menace, a brief threatening moment, and rough physical scuffles, but no gore, and sexuality is glimpsed rather than explicit. It suits a slow, reflective evening, or viewers who want an intimate coming-of-age drama with a strong sense of place, a bit of edge, and emotional honesty about family.
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