Hot Docs 2008

Over the summer vacation, a Finnish couple opens their home to a Russian orphan, who lives a mere 60 kilometres away. Geographic proximity is about all that the generous couple and 11-year-old Sveta have in common. Sveta doesn't say much and the do-gooders struggle to pull her out of her shell, addressing her in Finnish, a language she does not understand. They communicate instead through bedtime stories, shopping sprees and apiology. Summerchild is an intriguing and revelatory look at the role that performance and motive play in the act of charity. Are good intentions all that are needed to acclimatize Sveta to the West and to restore her childhood? The cultural and economic divide between Finland and Russia is sharply mirrored in Sveta's personal struggle to connect with Tiina and Peter, and to express herself freely, outside the confines of the orphanage and beyond her role as charity case.
-Angie Driscoll