Nana

Nana is a French drama movie that was released in the year 2011. The film was intelligently penned and directed by Valérie Massadian, a filmmaker known for her unique storytelling style which merges reality with fiction. She casts a spell of simplicity and innocence on her audience with this heart-touching movie. Nana was an official selection at the prestigious Locarno film festival in the International Competition category where it was well received and appreciated.

The film revolves around its titular character Nana, played brilliantly by the young Kelyna Lecomte. She injects a hard to forget charm into the story with her individualistic appearance on the screen, making her unforgettable throughout the movie. Nana presents a story seen through the eyes of a four-year-old, providing the audience a perspective into their undeniable innocence and purity.

The movie starts with a customary rural life that includes a pig slaughter scene, suppers, and shower scenes that recreate a naturalistic feel. It opens up gradually using long static shots that capture the banality of everyday life in a remote farm. The unique narrative style makes the mundane look interesting, taking audiences far from the fast-paced urban life into the tranquil solemnity of rural existence.

Nana lives with her mother (Marie Delmas) and her grandfather (Alain Sabras) in a remote house in woods. The film initially puts a lens on their everyday activities and the intriguing relationship between a young child, her young mother, and her grandfather which is beautifully cadenced by ordinary activities. It transgresses the boundaries of mundane existence to unravel the cheerfulness, adaptability, and instincts of a child when faced with solitude.

The second half of Nana takes an interesting turn when a change spins her world around leaving her alone inside the house. Suddenly, the house turns big and fearsome for Nana who is left to fend for herself. The journey that was once filled with companionship turns into a solitary exploration, and it is here that the film sheds its earlier skin to plunge into an almost supernaturally-spun narrative of a child’s unnerving interaction with her surroundings. Life becomes a playground filled with extraordinary events that often slide into the realm of fantasy and give a unique flavor to the movie.

Lecomte’s raw performance as Nana is indeed a show stealer. Her true-to-life portrayal takes audiences into the investigation of a four-year-old's mind in a way that is few and far between, reminiscent of the likes of Truffaut’s 400 Blows. She is innocent, yet observant; vulnerable, yet resilient. The seamless transition from her joyful discovery in the forest, her tantrums while eating, to venturing into her mother's world unfolds a beautifully woven tale of growing up, resilience, and adaptation.

Nana also boasts of a beautiful soundtrack that seamlessly merges with the narrative to enhance the overall ambience of the plot and helps the audience empathize better with the characters. The music in Nana goes beyond being an audio spectacle and doesn’t merely accompany the visuals, but facilitates in narrating the story.

Capturing the naive world of the child, the cinematography by Valérie Massadian and Leo Hinstin is truly remarkable and has captured the innocence and mystic charm of the woods, where most of the film was shot. The wide shots of the surrounding landscape contribute to the isolation theme of the movie.

Overall, Nana is a compelling and observational study of childhood, resilience, dosed with an element of magical realism. It’s subtle, stunning, and will make the viewer ponder. It confronts us with breathless reality, the mystery of life and survival seen through the eyes of a child. The incognito universality in its specific tale makes Nana a unique cinematic experience. It’s much more than a movie, it’s a journey into the inner world of a child, and through that, a deep-dive into the core aspects of human existence.