Little Ida

Liten Ida

The sins of the mother weigh cruelly on an innocent little girl in occupied northern Norway towards the end of the Second World War, in Mikkelsen’s heartrending drama.

  • Director

    Laila Mikkelsen

  • With

    Sunniva Lindekleiv, Lise Fjeldstad, Arne Lindtner Naess, Howard Halvorsen

  • Norway 1981. 87min

  • 35mm

  • Certificate

    PG

  • English subtitles

Set in a prisoner of war camp in occupied Norway, Laila Mikkelsen’s adaptation of Marit Paulsen’s semi-autobiographical novel (scripted by the author) concerns seven-year-old Ida, who faces ostracism from her schoolmates and their parents after her mother, a cook at the camp, begins an affair with one of the SS guards. Sunniva Lindekleiv stakes her claim to the canon of child performances, playing the tragic innocent. Without a hint of false sentiment, she conveys Ida’s puzzlement and the pain of having to inherit the sins of her sad, lonely mother, whom Mikkelsen’s never judges nor condones. The film’s distinctive cinematography, all muted tones of brown and grey, looks striking on an original 35mm release print that’s in fine condition. A real rediscovery.

James Bell

Access information

A printed transcript of the curator’s introduction to this screening will be available on entry to the screen.