VERDICT: An 11-year-old girl has a sexual awakening when she joins an older girls’ football team, but she struggles to understand and control taboo desires.
In Brasier, Emilie Mannering’s potent coming of age short which screens this week at Oldenburg, there is a recurring motif of ashen fingers. In the film, as Pierre-Amelia’s (Amelie Raposo) first carnal desires begin to emerge, she sees black soot spreading from her fingertips over her hands. It’s perhaps a pointed note of comparison that it bears a striking resemblance to the way dark magic is portrayed on the hands of witches in the Marvel Cinematic Universe – in both instances feminine deviance manifests as a dark indicator on the skin. In Pierre-Amelia’s case, it is less the development of sexual urges that constitute aberration as the subject of her lust.
When the film begins, nothing could be further from her mind. Having been invited to join a football team made up of older girls – The Flames – she is primarily keen on showcasing her sporting prowess. However, the other girls on the team have additional, more adult concerns, and their discussion of sexual acts, and one particular team-mate’s interest in Pierre-Amelia’s cute brother (Tiago Freire Brosseau), begin to spark confusing thoughts in the film’s heroine. Tarnished by the shadowy marks that appear on her hands – though are visible to nobody else – Pierre-Amelia’s tentative steps into the adult world teeter on the precipice between attraction and revulsion.
Such a story, that is centred on a taboo subject such as incestuous thoughts, could easily topple into moralistic condemnation, but Mannering’s direction and the narrative constructed by writer Camille Trudel deftly handle the bewildering blurriness of Pierre-Amelia’s feelings. Her brother, with whom she has a very close relationship, and who is her most ardent fan, represents something that she can’t quite put her finger on. The film deals with moments of ambiguity, uncertainty, and embarrassment perfectly. The audience can easily understand how the force of typical sibling infatuation can become caught up in awakening sexuality, and in Brasier, they come to see how those troubling waters are navigated to eventual emancipation.
Director: Emilie Mannering
Cast: Amelia Raposo, Tiago Freire Brosseau
Screenplay: Camille Trudel
Producer: Sophie Ricard-Harvey, Charlotte Beaudoin-Poisson
Cinematography: Antoine Ryan
Editing: Myriam Magassouba
Music Sacha Ratcliffe
Sound: Sacha Ratcliffe, Shelley Craig
Art direction: Louisa Schabas
Production company: O Films (Canada)
Venue: Oldenburg Film Festival
In French
19 minutes
