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London Film Festival Preview: Sister
Val Phoenix , October 8th, 2012 12:28

Val Phoenix watches Ursula Meier's snowy second feature, screening at the 56th London Film Festival ahead of its October 26 theatrical release

A class-conscious family drama bringing together the unlikely cast of Gillian Anderson, Léa Seydoux and Martin Compston in support of lead actor Kacey Mottet Klein as 12-year-old Simon, whose visits to a Swiss mountaintop ski lodge to steal from tourists mask a quite complex and disturbing situation at home.

Mottet Klein gives an impressive performance as a boy growing up too soon, while Seydoux proves a volatile foil as the woman who should be looking after him. Although the tone is generally downbeat, there are moments of comedy as Simon goes about his business - much to the admiration of his peers on the grotty estate - while trying to avoid the attentions of the adults in the promised land up the mountain.