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Love According to Dalva, dir. Emmanuelle Nicot, France 2022, 87 min., French with English subtitles, 15
Although Dalva is 12, she dresses, wears make-up and lives like a woman. One evening, she’s suddenly taken away from a 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.
In her poignant feature debut, director Emmanuelle Nicot navigates the ramifications of childhood sexual abuse with sensitivity and grace, rejecting a sensationalised depiction of trauma and examining the complexity of coercive, controlling parental relationships in detail. Love According to Dalva is strengthened by a luminous performance from Samson, who fully expresses Dalva’s bewilderment and brings us inside her turbulent emotional journey with honesty and insight.
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