Among the many films about the family, the audience can not forget a Lebanese film "Why Home" in 2019, and many viewers burst into tears after seeing the painful but real growth experience of their children.
This year, as one of the "2021 Central and Eastern European Countries Excellent Film BroadcastIng Event", China's "Little Harbor", adapted from the book "The Fifth Ship" by Slovak writer Monich Kompanikovi, according to the author's inspiration for the book comes from the real event: a girl stole a baby in a stroller and began to take care of him like a mother.
Director Grofova also said in an interview: "I found a very powerful growth story in this book. I was immediately drawn to the unique text and visual imagination of the story, and I knew it was a story I had to tell. ”
"Little Harbor" uses a child's perspective to vividly show the loneliness of the protagonist Yara's growth experienced in the broken original family, telling the story of the 10-year-old girl Yara who picked up two small babies after her grandmother died and her irresponsible mother ran away from home.
From birth, Yara's mother paid little attention to her, not letting her call her mother, but Lucia, and they were friends, not mother and daughter.
She hadn't seen her father, just as she hadn't seen her grandfather. Grandma said that your grandfather was an irresponsible person who left their mother and daughter very early, and now Lucia is equally irresponsible.
Yara ran alone to the beach where her mother was partying, looking for her mother's figure. But when her mother passed her, she only glanced at her faintly, as if passing by a stranger.
Yara climbed up the tower and sat trembling on it, hoping to get her mother's attention, but until she jumped down and climbed alone from the sea to the shore, no one noticed her, not even her mother.
Her legs trembled, and she endured her reddened knees and hurt heart from being slapped by the water, and went to the little garden that remained in her house. It was a ruin, but there was a small house where she learned the way and how her mother talked to her, and it was like a soothing place for her soul.
Later, when her grandmother died of illness, her mother told her that after a while, she would take her to work on the ship and find a place where only they could live with each other.
She thought she could finally enjoy her mother's love, so even when her mother returned with a group of strange men, she wore a skirt and learned to dance in the room like her mother, because at this moment, her mother introduced her daughter in front of everyone.
However, when she saw the group of people using fireworks sticks to tie to her little hedgehog, she suddenly realized that her mother had not considered her feelings at all.
Even the next day, when her mother was going to pack up her things and leave, she begged her to stay here alone, in exchange for just a sentence of "No matter when you get lost, just remember to follow the mark", which seems to be casual, but it is a little more deliberate.
Because in the mark in Yara's heart, who else but his mother?
Originally promised to take her with him, now he left with his luggage without a trace of guilt. Yara was left behind again and again, trying to keep her mother again and again, she ran to the train station to buy a ticket to where her mother went, but missed the boarding time because she was kind enough to help others take care of the baby.
In this film, Yara can no longer be explained by the word "sensible", and the reason why she chooses to take on the responsibility of taking care of her grandmother is actually because of her desire to be "noticed" - from her mother's attention.
That's why she later chose to take home two babies abandoned by a strange mother—for an identity that was not noticed and protected.
If Yara says she was completely ignored by her mother, Christian, a friend, was overprotected by her family.
Solid color home, thin body, in order to always know the movement of the child, parents also bought a smart phone.
Compared to Christian, Yara is like an unruly homeless child, and his family does not allow him to have contact with Yara, or even speak.
But Christian longed for Yara's life, because to him, the home was like a cage, and he was a bird that couldn't fly out.
Therefore, every time Yara came to him, although he had the inner fear of being scolded, he tolerated Yara's actions again and again, and even felt extremely happy.
When Yara raises two babies and tells Christian, he chooses to participate with almost no hesitation, fearing that Yara will not be enough to be masculine enough to let him take care of the baby.
In this small family, he played the role of "father", responsible for caring for the baby and purchasing food together, and also shouldering the responsibility of keeping the baby safe.
Because it is needed, so choose to be powerful. Boys who were once weak and controlled by their parents from an early age have now become unusually brave.
In this "family" where four children are less than 20 years old, they play the role of a family of four, as if it is a satire on countless modern loveless families.
The poet Rumi said, "You must train your desire, and if you want something, then give something first." "When we want to be loved, we need to first learn how to love others.
For Yara, she finally found the feeling of being needed and cared for by giving love; for Klostian, he finally gained the freedom to release the "cage" and the ability to take care of others by giving action.
One night, because the milk powder was accidentally overturned, Christian went out to find the milk powder with a fear of darkness, and came back at dawn and brought back a lot of food, in fact, this is very strange, how did he find it? Why didn't anyone find him?
But just like the movie title, this little garden is like their own harbor, no one will discover their existence, this is their free place.
And the real ending of this incident is that the children are found, the two babies are taken away, and the lives of the two of them are back to square one. But at the end of the film, the director leaves a blank ending, and when many "dangerous" adults pursue them, the house where the children live becomes a "boat", carrying them away to the blue sea, towards the pure and glowing world, which is their own "little harbor".