Estonia takes the stage at EUFF
2 December 2011
On Sunday (Dec 4 @ 4:30pm) and Monday (Dec 5 @ 8:20pm), Estonia shines on the big screen at the Pacific Cinemathque during the 14th Annual European Union Film Festival.
Katrin Laur has created a deeply moving film that has challenged my deepest beliefs.
The Graveyard Keeper’s Daughter is about a young girl (Lucia) with two disappointing parents. Her father seems loving and able, but he doesn’t believe himself to be a capable parent. Lucia’s mother is a total disappointment, unable to do most anything but drink alcohol.
The setting of the graveyard makes for wonderful scenes and a make-believe paradise for Lucia and her angel. I love how Lucia disregards what some may regard as important issues but is as capable a guardian for her Down Syndrome friend as anyone could be.
I think the film does an amazing job of portraying stereotypes with as little commentary as possible (with the understanding that stereotypes are judgments in themselves). As the girl’s life spirals downward with her parents, it would be easy to simply write them off and condone the teacher/social worker/state’s intervention and forget about it.
But, as Lucia makes clear, there is no better place for a child than with her parents, that is, both of them. And Estonia, as in Canada, provides no support for parents with challenges that they’ve inherited from their own parents. The solution there, as here, is to remove the child and toss away the parents. Even a quick look around will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that this solution only creates more problems, for the child and for the state.
