Misa mi (2003)

Misa mi: Directed by Linus Torell. With Kim Jansson, Lena Granhagen, Per Nilja, Magnus Krepper. When her mother died, 10 year old girl Misa’s world stopped. And when her father, along with her new girlfriend, wants to spend the summer in the Swedish province Skåne she refuses to come with them. Misa’s father reluctantly agrees that Misa stays with her grandmother in Arjeplog over the summer instead. In the deep forest of northern Sweden Misa find more than she ever could imagine; she meets a wolf with cubs that Misa develop a deep and strange connection with. But the wolf spreads fear in the small village and someone has hired a poacher to kill it and her cubs…

“Looking superficially u0026quot;Misa miu0026quot; may leave an impression thereu0026#39;s nothing new here and it is a medley of clichés. A widowed father finding new love, child-animal relation, grandmother living in wilderness, kids who dislike each other becoming friends while working for mutual aim, national minority with different lifestyle and traditions… Everything sounds so familiar. And beautiful nature, cute animals… Looks like playing a safe card, you just canu0026#39;t lose.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNow you expect an education movie: kids will get information about certain animal species, and be told to accept differences between people and usual things about environment etc. And if you watch the movie with one eye shut, during ironing or cooking or reading headlines in papers, youu0026#39;ll stay in that conviction. However, if you take your time to watch it without prejudices, youu0026#39;ll see this is a family and not child movie, targeting equally on all generations. There are no moralities, no final answers, no ecological proclamations and pamphlets, no psychological analyzing, no patronizing messages.. Questions are open, answers are offered, but there is always more than one. This is real life, you donu0026#39;t have simple answers. This is not u0026quot;You must stop when the light is redu0026quot; or u0026quot;Donu0026#39;t touch the stoveu0026quot;, not even u0026quot;Black and white are equalu0026quot; or u0026quot;Itu0026#39;s wrong to steal in the shopu0026quot; child movie.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA girl is not prepared to share her father with a (potential) new stepmother? She has right to avoid her when she can, but her father has a right for his life to continue. Is traditional medicine better than official, scientific one? Both are here to cure people, and none of them can do everything. Growing up in old or modern way? First includes drinking coffee at the age of 3; the second means TV addiction.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe best example is the grandmother: she doesnu0026#39;t justify killing the wolf (the endangered species), but she also tells her granddaughter who stands for the right of the wolves to survive: yes, but people also live here and also try to survive.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe only final message may be – you canu0026#39;t make up your mind, you canu0026#39;t find definite answers until you try not just to hear and see, but live and understand both sides. And even then, it is only your choice and your answer, and not the universal truth (that most movies and most people in reality pretend to offer).”