Popular reviews

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  Review by shookone ★★★

  the psychologization of an abused child. has a lot of fine observations in it - the sexualized behaviour, the repeating patterns etc - but is eventually a quite simple coming-of-age drama with an hopeful touch to it.

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  Review by egallagher ★★★★½ 1

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  so so good and powerful. the shots of her realizing that her father dyed her hair to match her mothers hair left me speechless. a knockout directorial debut

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  Review by smallclone ★★★★½

  Wow. What an outstanding debut by Emmanuelle Nicot. Belgian drama cinema is flying at the moment and this co-production with France (in French) is more of the same. The content is bleak at times but there is nothing disturbing image wise, it is purely about the drama.

  Synopsis: "One evening, Dalva is suddenly taken away from her father’s house. Dumbfounded and outraged at first, she later meets Jayden, a social worker, and Samia, a teen with a temper. A new life seems to start for Dalva, that of a girl her age."

  Zelda Samson gives not just one of the best young performances of recent times but perhaps the performance of the year as the titular character who is suffering…

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  Review by BirdsEyeBen ★★★★½ 2

  This review may contain spoilers. I can handle the truth.

  Of course it's French/Belgian Cinema that has the courage's to showcase this sensitive and shocking topic of incest.
  This movie is raw and distressing but at the same time showcases moments of great hope and jubilation. It depics coming of age stories of less fortunate children that really manages to emotionally engage the audience. This is not only done through a great script and metaculous direction but also by allowing the story to be told through images and actors facial expressions.
  A very impressive deput feature film by director/writer Emmanuelle Nicot.

  #4 Filmfestival Hamburg

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  Review by Jack Moulton ★★★★

  A very delicate transitory film but that's all it needed to be. I'm so impressed by the way Zelda Samson embodied her difficult character with such maturity and compulsion.

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  Review by Noah Jacquot ★★★★½

  C'est extrêmement difficile de parler de ce film puisque qu'il est lui-même très dur... Ce long-métrage est un véritable coup de massue que l'on ne voit pas venir, le hors-champ et les dialogues s'occupent de tout. Rien n'est véritablement montré mais tout est dit, à travers les paroles lourdes de cette jeune fille, à travers la mise en scène étouffante, serrée et intime, mais surtout à travers cette épreuve qu'aucun enfant ne devrait avoir à vivre... Le film marque par son sujet et comment il est abordé, il marque par ses personnages et par ses scènes parfois dures et parfois légères sans jamais tomber dans un tire-larmes ennuyeux. C'est à voir absolument, bien que le sujet soit difficile, ce genre de films donne foi envers le cinéma français et marque pour toujours...

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  Review by abby ★★★★½

  I can’t believe this is Emmanuelle Nicot‘s directorial debut! The style is unique and fresh and the story is unlike anything I’ve seen onscreen. Highly recommend!

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  Review by Cesar A ★★★★

  Qué experiencia tan horrenda. Es una mierda que tantas personas tengan que vivir situaciones así. La película logra arrojar esperanza aún en las situaciones más innombrables y eso es hermoso. Hay una parte reconfortante en el camino a recuperar la inocencia, a permitirnos sanar el dolor, a conectar y aprender de otros. Pero nunca se muestra a expensas de la cruda realidad.

  Gran película. Hermosa y horrible a partes iguales.

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  Review by bastian★,｡･:* ★★★★½

  La encuentro tan cautivante, aterradora y extremadamente necesaria. 

  Una de las cosas más aterradoras es que Dalva tuvo que aprender a ser una niña de 12 años, a reconstruir y enfrentarse a su propia imagen, a saber si lo que pensaba era de ella o de lo que había causado su padre. 

  Hay un par de escenas, sobretodo cuando Dalva y su padre se reencuentran en la cárcel, que me han dejado atónito.

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  Review by luisdementia ★★★

  Oscura e inquietante en su premisa, con un avance reflexivo y gratificante, es una obra efectiva sobre el crecimiento adolescente. Su brevedad hace que su mensaje llegue de manera directa, sin perder el tiempo con didáctica fácil.

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  Review by douae el-dehaira ★★★½

  تعريفُ "دالفا" للحبِّ كانت يشملُ تحرشات والدها بها أيضا، لأنَّ والدها لقّنها درسا حول كيف أنّ معاملاتِه لها كانت تدخلُ في إطارِ الحبِّ الذي يكنُّه لها، لذلك فالفيلم بشكل عام يعالجُ كيف يمكن أن تقتنعَ طفلةٌ تعرضتْ للتحرش أو الاغتصاب أنَّ ممارسةَ الجنس ليست صوَرا من صور الحب في علاقة والد وابنته..
  وكمشهد أثّر بي فعلا من الفلم؛ حينما زارت دالفا والدَها في السجن.. أخبرته أنهم يتهمونَه بالتّحرش بها وأنا تُجاريهِم في ذلك دون أن تصدّقهم، أخبرته أنها تؤمن أنه لم يفعل لها شيئا مضرا، فبكى والدها لإدراكه أنه لم يُذنِب في حق جسد ابنته فحسب، بل في حق عقليّتِها أيضا.

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  Review by suzie ★★★

  i wish with all my heart i could settle for a simple and short review that feels like a slap in the face. a kind of « ouch ».
  because that’s what i’d have liked to feel………

  dalva is a very intelligent and overwhelming film, carried by a young actress completely virtuoso. 
  obviously, talking about this subject, and let’s name it, let’s not give it the privilege of taboo, so, the subject of incest is a very very hard one to deal with. you have to know how to stay at a distance so as not to fall into something too cliché or too nauseating, which shows off too much.
  if the aspect of the hold is perfectly well treated:…