Angela

Angela, ten years old, and her six years old sister Ellie, have grown up with a severely manic-depressive mother, Mae. In order to live a reasonably normal life despite the effect the illness has on the family, their father Andrew decides that they should move to a New York suburb. He begins to take his family to church in order to provide the girls with a faith to help them handle life's ups and downs (as well as Mae's ups and downs). The ecclesiastical visits have an unexpected effect. Angela, who is convinced that her actions have a direct effect on her parents' lives, is obsessed by the thought of God and the Devil, of good and evil. Without guidance she is drawn into her own fantasy world where Lucifer is in command, in the shape of the beautiful angel that he was before he was thrown out of paradise. Angela believes that Lucifer is there to take her or Ellie to hell. In order for him not to succeed they have to ''purge'' themselves of sins. She starts looking for signs from God about the road to paradise and performs rituals in order to purify herself and her sister. When Mae is committed to a mental hospital the girls are convinced that it is their fault and they escape in pursuit of the signs that will save them from Lucifer. Angela is an intense film with elements of mysticism and spirituality. It shows the kind of dark and dangerous fantasy world that children can some-times create for themselves. In Angela's case it is a world of responsibility, fear, insecurity and feelings of guilt. The film shows what can happen when children are forced to deal with serious situations that they neither understand nor control. According to Angela her thoughts and sins are the reasons for Mae's illness and that is why she is the only one who can do something about it. Angela alone takes the blame for the decline of the family. The over-explicit symbolism works thanks to the actors' believable characterizations. The two girls, who the director Rebecca Miller spent four months looking for, are impressive as Angela and Ellie. Anna Thomson who plays the tired, worn-out Marilyn Monroe imitation Mae is also convincing in her role as an unhinged singer who has lost her glamour. Gentle handling of both story and actors in combination with quiet cinematography and an interesting plot makes Angela well worth seeing. It is difficult to leave the cinema unmoved after having witnessed the hopeless struggle that the angelic Angela fights against feelings much stronger than herself, in a world which is her own creation.

Premiärstatus
Nordisk premiär: Medverkande
Miranda Stuart Rhyne, Anna Thomson, Vincent Gallo: Producent
Ron Kastner: Manus
Rebecca Miller: Foto
Ellen Kuras: Musik
Michael Rohatyn: Talat språk
English