My Skinny Sister

First-time Swedish director Sanna Lenken mines her own experience of anorexia for this coming-of-age drama. In a middle-class family, teenager Katja (Amy Deasismont, a former Scandi child pop star) is the centre of attention. A promising ice-skater, she is loved and envied by her ungainly 11-year-old sister Stella (Rebecka Josephson). When Stella threatens to tell their parents about Katja’s eating disorder, Katja says she’ll reveal Stella’s own naughty little secrets.

Lenken’s direction takes its time in building to this intriguing conflict, preferring to treat its characters seriously rather than rush towards the next crisis. The film’s attitude to pre-pubescent sexuality is very European in its openness, but it also has an understanding of the psychological stresses behind Katja’s condition, effectively framing everything within the frictions and affections of a highly believable, ultimately rather touching sibling relationship. And Josephson gives us one of the most captivating young performances since Abigail Breslin in ‘Little Miss Sunshine’.