There’s not many teenagers that would have posters of Susanne Bier’s A Second Chance and the Danish thriller 3 Things on their wall. But then again, there’s no one quite like Elvira. The Sami 15-year-old clings to the fantasy that Nikolaj Coster-Waldau is her father, but in Egil Pedersen’s sweet and low-key My Fathers’ Daughter she’ll have to grow up and learn she’s just as ordinary as everyone else — and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Coming-of-age is never easy but Elvira (an endearing and spiky performance by Sarah Olaussen Eira) is truly — as the kids say — going through it. Her single mother Beate (Inga Elisa Pave Idivuoma) has come out and plans marry her girlfriend Rita (Anne Magga Wigelius), who is always hanging about the house, much to Elvira’s chagrin. At school, rising influencer Margrethe (Sara Sofia Mienna) tries to befriend Elvira and manipulate her position as the daughter of a queer woman and a supposed half-Dane to get more followers. As far as Elvira knows, she was conceived in a fertility clinic in Denmark, and it’s no secret to anybody who she thinks her father is. But when her real father Terje (Aslat Mahtte Gaup) is released from prison, and shows up at her door, Beate’s lie to Elvira about her origin is revealed, and it turns her world and sense of identity upside down. And not even the wisdom of Karl Marx’s “Kapital,” toted around by her best friend Aslat (Amund Lode — playing a far dorkier version of Timothee Chalamet’s “A People’s History Of The United States” by Howard Zinn-reading Kyle from Lady Bird) can help.
The screenplay by Pedersen may approach gossamer — the film runs to 75 minutes, including credits — but it doesn’t waste a moment. Highlighting his background in short film and music videos, the director is quick to establish the tight-knit environs and people of the small village of Unjarga in northern Norway. Just as efficiently established are the dynamics between Elvira, her mother, and the fledging relationship she develops with Terje. My Fathers’ Daughter even manages to make the handful of fantasy sequences with Coster-Waldau himself as Elvira’s spirit guardian both amusing and meaningful. But most of all, it’s what the film gets right about both parents and teenagers that makes it find the right note.
Above all else, this a film about accepting that parents and kids are going to screw up — and it’s how you deal with it that counts. What comes through is a lesson about honesty, and realizing when white lies have to give way to truth. It’s also, for children, about knowing who will actually be there for you when things go wrong — even if those people drive you up the wall — and that parents will always be cringe. There’s an authenticity in the fractious yet affectionate and protective relationship between Beate and Elvira that overrides some of the film’s moral simplicity. Beate is mother who doesn’t always get it right, while Elvira doesn’t know enough to have all the answers (even though she might think she does). And that’s in that well-meaning heart where the film succeeds best.
Perhaps better suited for tweenagers than adults, with its broad emotional beats, genial and inoffensive tone, and easy disposition, the picture is nonetheless wise enough to wrap everything up in a neat bow. My Fathers’ Daughter leaves Elvira changed, but in someways, right back where she started: a young woman, with a bright future, still trying to figure it all out as best she can.
Director: Egil Pedersen
Screenplay: Egil Pedersen
Cast: Sarah Olaussen Eira, Ingá Elisa Pave Idivuoma, Aslat Mahtte Gaup, Amund Lode, Anne Magga Wigelius, Sara Sofia Mienna, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau
Producers: Mathis Ståle Mathisen, Pål Røed, Aleksander Olai Korsnes
Cinematography: Anna Myking
Production design: Emma Skoog
Costume design: Nina Erdahl
Editing: Thomas Grotmol, Toril Strøm, Geir Ørnholt
Music: Remi Semshaug Langseth, Mathis Ståle Mathisen
Sound: Johannes Dekko
Production companies: Rein Film (Norway), Paasan (Norway), Oktober (Finland), Bautafilm (Sweden), Filmpool Nord (Sweden)
World sales: Pluto Film
Venue: Toronto International Film Festival (Discovery)
In Sámi, Danish, English, Norwegian
78 minutes
