You won't be disappointed!

It is a whirlwind of delight --- attractive actors, stunning couture, spectacular sets and outrageous parties.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

Julie Gavras, the director, is a power house judging by this film. She wrote the script, based on a novel by Domitilla Calamai, and directed what seems like an honest film with depth. Anna de la Mesa is a young girl, a daughter to wealthy parents and grandparents, whose parents become communists and politically active in the 70's. They move from a large house to a small flat, always full with activists, and all the princess-like reality is shattered. The girl, serious, competitive and intense resists the changes with all her might, but slowly, certain people and certain stories reach her, and she softens. Her little brother is captivating-funny, sweet and smart, and there's a brief moment where you see how she crosses the line to finally seeing him. I loved the little actress. Something else I loved-how the relationships with the parents are not embellished but appear in all their errors, rough edges and tenderness. The director is Costa Gavras's daughter, and the mother is played by Julie Depardieu-Gerard's daughter.

I'm not going to pretend that I'm interested particularly in the politics of the period in question, nor the period itself, for that matter.We're talking about the '70's and communist ideals, namely supporting another country, or regime by proxy. In this case, to make up for perceived neglected family duties - the father who's Spanish, with his French wife and three young children in Paris. Meetings, with an array of strangers forever coming and going are seen through the eyes of the preciously gifted and inquisitive 9 y.o. and which propels this film.Her (Nina Kerval) questioning starts out as seeking explanations as to the family's downward change in social status, where she's picked on at school for having weird parents, who eat weird food and have strange friends. As with any precocious child, questions follow the answers, the parents often not sure of the answers themselves let alone what to tell the children, as ideals in theory are often more difficult in practice. It's this mix of naivety, self exploration and quest for human knowledge that raises this film above an ordinary one. How, we all as kids would counteract a mistake made by a parent, often by contradiction and how we'd exaggerate it enormously. It was our way of showing how smart we were and how wrong and fallible, and lovable they were by being wrong. Usually Anna (the girl) gets it wrong, in both context and intent; not hilariously so but with a knowing amusement we observe Kerval's subtle but wide range of expressions. We are indeed looking at a great actress in the making.Other than that, I found the film quite claustrophobic with the glum interiors of 70's - stale browns and oranges and mostly glum characters dressed similarly and not having a great time. It revealed little historically. Maybe parents could view it as a study as to how to juggle family needs with maintaining a political (or other) ideal and the obvious sacrifices that ultimately entails.

If you remember being a child confused about the 'grown ups' around you, then this film is worth watching. I thought it was going to be a heavy dark film - and it might be on one level - but it's not at all on the other, mainly because it is about seeing the ('grown up') world from a child's point of view. It reminded me a bit of Pan's Labyrinth in that way, i.e. the way there is an 'adults world' and a 'child's world', although Pan's Labyrinth focuses more on childhood escapism, but 'Blame in Fidel' is more about childhood realism. That is to say this film focuses, in a really lovely accurate way, on a child struggling to understand the real world around them, especially when the adults around her don't tell her the full story. There is no fantasy here. It's all very real. Anna clearly wants to understand what's going on. She hears snippets of conversations and tries to put it all together, sometimes correctly, sometimes incorrectly. Definitely worth a watch!

This is an exciting film from Julie Gavras, the daughter of Oscar winning writer/director Costa-Gavras (Missing, Z). The effect of a rise in consciousness on the part of Anna's (Nina Kervel-Bey) parents, played by Julie Depardieu and Stefano Accorsi on the family is examined with humor.Giving up her comfortable bourgeois life so her parents could fight for social justice against fascists like Franco was a real adjustment for Anna. It didn't help that her nanny filled her head with nonsense, but her sacking solved that problem.It was a beautiful tale of a girl growing up to think, and to think about someone other than herself. She learned about solidarity and freedom and the pain of escaping one's past.This little girl has a real future in film.