Loss is a tricky emotion to capture in film. Throughout its representations, one stands out in its unique representation of grief and loss through the eyes of a child. Summer 1993 (2017) is a beautiful portrait of the Catalan countryside, twinged throughout by this complex grief experienced by a child. This Catalan-language Spanish film directed by Carla Simón, six-year-old Frida looks out on this countryside, following the loss of her mother as she moves to live with her aunt, uncle, and cousin. Capturing the complex emotions of young children in these difficult times, Frida’s common silence as well as the complex themes told through an often assumed to be simple way, through the eyes of the child, the film paints a stunning portrait of Catalan, family dynamics, and childhood grief.

Following the loss of her mother, six-year-old Frida moves to the Catalan countryside, where she spends the summer alongside her aunt, uncle, and cousin. Throughout the summer, Frida acts out and becomes unpredictable, as she struggles to work through her emotions and grief as a young child. Laia Artigas gives a stellar breakout performance as Frida, giving a heart-wrenching performance as the often silent yet complicated child working through grief and an understanding of such devastating loss. Bruna Cusí beautifully supports Artigas’ child performance playing Frida’s aunt, Marga. Struggling to support her family and keep her own child safe as Frida acts out as she works through her grief, Cusí’s performance of this complex woman trying to balance her empathy towards the young girl and finding ways to move forward in their new relationship as mother and daughter can’t help but strike a nerve with everyone in the audience who has every experiences loss, and comforting a loved one who has lost someone themselves.

Carla Simón’s direction and screenplay both seem to fully grasp the inner workings of a child experiencing loss and grief. Narratively, the film is viewing the world from a very young child’s perspective. The film begins and the viewer is already thrown into the whirlwind of the aftermath of the death of Frida’s parents, with further information given only as required. This lack of exposition can be jarring, but works in the fact that this is a child’s world each viewer is entering, and this world can often be confusing, abrupt, and for Frida, full of the unknown.

Following from the beginning of the film, Simón continues to follow this trend, often only giving viewers information as it would come to be understood by Frida. Passing conversations in the kitchen, or entering discussions with a lack of context at the dinner table, Simón articulates this childhood confusion alongside Frida’s grief perfectly to audiences through a very selective and ingenious filtering of information from them. A letter mentioned at the dinner table written by Frida’s mother before her death, that Frida is not allowed to read, so neither is the viewer. Frida abruptly asking what would happen if they put a hair dryer in the bath, but lacking much knowledge of Frida’s past this is never brought up again. Dynamics as Frida plays pretend with her cousin, playing a demanding and seemingly apathetic mother, but once again never having seen Frida’s past with her parents or other family. Simón seems to have perfected an art of giving the audience just enough information for them to make their own assumptions about the life of Frida before the loss of her mother, without explicitly saying almost anything about their past. It is not until the end, in a heart-wrenching scene between Frida and Marga, that certain truths about Frida’s mother are made clear to her, as both Frida and the audience are ready to hear these truths.

Carla Simón’s 2017 film Summer 1993 is a heart-wrenching yet true depiction of childhood loss, grief, and understanding of the world. Lacking much exposition, or information about six-year-old Frida’s past, the film lurches viewers into the life of Frida following her parent’s deaths, through the eyes of this very child. With a stunning and complex performance from Bruna Cusí as Marga, Frida’s aunt who takes her in, Simón so wonderfully captures the complicated emotions often felt by those surrounding the one’s who have lost a loved one, while also working through their own grief. Through her tactful use of giving the audience just enough information, as Frida would have received it, the viewer is put directly into the unique position of this child who has lost everything, but must begin to trust and love again.

Summer 1993 is available to stream on Mubi in Canada.