Kicking off my CIFF schedule is a French film written and directed by Celine Sciamma. Tomboy is about a girl who is mistaken for a boy, and decides to continue this deception amongst some new friends.
During a French summer, pre-teen Laure has fun with her little sister while they bide time for school to begin again, and for their heavily pregnant mother to give birth soon. They are new to their neighborhood outside of Paris, and Laure happens upon kids her age playing near the woods. Laure has a boyish figure and wears her hair short, so it is understandable that Lisa mistakes her for a boy. But Laure doesn't correct her, and says she is "Mikael" and lets the other kids believe this too.
We see Laure hang back from soccer games, as Lisa make googly eyes at her. Laure seems oblivious to Lisa's behavior, and watches the boys intently--is she studying their form for tips on behaving like a boy, or is Laure attracted to them? When kissed by Lisa later, does her smile signify she enjoys being kissed by a girl, or enjoy having fooled Lisa so well? The performance by Zoe Heran is wholly credible that we can sie for either stance--is she "boy" or "girl" here?--and is ambiguous enough so we question, even at this young age, her sexual identity.
The film also shows a nice relationship between Laure and her little sister Jeanne, another natural performance by Malonn Levana. The two play realistically and Jeanne goes along with Laure's deception enthusiastically.
The part that puzzled me is the mother's behavior. While I can understand her being shocked, confused, angry, afraid and behaving irrationally when she finds out Laure's secret, the film doesn't show her making any effort to understand her daughter.
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