Over/under

Over/under
Original title:Over/under
Director:Sophia Silver
Release:Vod
Running time:88 minutes
Release date:Not communicated
Rating:
Summer 2002. Nine-year-old Violet and Stella are inseparable. They spend their days playing in the waves, catching butterflies, making wishes to the fairies and spying on the nudists at the nearby beach. But the summer ends. Stella meets up with her friends, but prefers to talk about mermaids rather than tampons. Violet, more solitary, falls in love with a young pervert attracted by her pre-teen body with its nascent femininity. The two girls will meet again the following summers, but puberty, boys, family crises and the desire to fit in will test the magic of their friendship.

Mulder's Review

If the American film festival is so important to me, it's because it allows me to spend a wonderful week with my parents in a beautiful town in Normandy, but also to discover films that we won't see in theaters for the most part, despite the many qualities of some of them. Certainly Over/Under is simplistic in its approach but at no time does it seek to dazzle the audience but rather to tell them a story of friendship between two girls of about 9 years old and how over a period of four years their relationship will evolve not only in the face of their environment but especially in the face of their awakening to the beginnings of adolescence.  

Stella (Anastasia Veronica Lee) and Violet (Emajean Bullock) are two inseparables 9-year-old girls. They met during their summer vacation in New England because their respective parents have a second home by the sea in a small town like many in the United States. Their strong bond allows them to spend a lot of time together and awaken to the wonders of the world around them. Between their family worries and those encountered in their respective schools, these two young girls will gradually understand that life is far from being a modern fairy tale. Director Sophia Silver, who also co-wrote the screenplay, delivers a tender study of the American girl.

By continually seeking to remain realistic and drawing on her own past, director Sophia Silver delivers moments of ephemeral and sensitive life and shows us that this period of life is one of the happiest we go through because we are still innocent and do not yet realize the ephemeral side of life. The film seems to tell us that we must know how to tell our loved ones how much we love them and that they are our rock, our vital force that pushes us to accomplish great things and specially to see in our future a note of hope.

Over/Under
Directed by Sophia Silver
Produced by Sophia Silver, Grace West, Grace Gregory, Kimberly Hwang & Chelsea Davenport 
Written by Sophia Silver & Sianni Rosenstock 
Starring Emajean Bullock, Anastasia Veronica Lee, Adam David Thompson, Madeline Wise, Brandon Keener, Christiane Seidel
Music by Jackson Greenberg
Cinematography : Frances Chen
Edited by Yu Jung Hou 
Production companies : Synchronicities LLC
Running time : 88 minutes

Seen on September 7, 2022 at the Deauville International Center

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