| RATING: | 80% |
| FORMAT: | DVD |
Fascinating critique of loveless Christian guilt-ridden parenting and the religiosity that says that merely claiming to be Christian automatically makes one a good person.
The self-fulfilling belief that people are born into sin is what makes them sinful and is designed to conceal the sin of the person who carries such beliefs. Here, Whites treat their children like dogs and their dogs like children and one can easily surmise the reason for the inherently violent and militarist nature of Western culture along with its obsession with complete trivia.
The well-made analogy with the internal and external snobbery of the materialistic British Empire is particularly appropriate here - as is the inevitable seeking of favors from abusive parents by being disloyal to one’s so-called friends.
There is also here a terrific fear of teenage sexuality exemplified by emotionally-repressed adults and sexually-incompetent children. The fundamental challenge apparently faced here by the youngsters is how to get their inadequate parents to attend to their basic needs when the parents believe that it is the child’s job to attend to the needs of the parents. This inevitably leads to children lying to adults as a means of satisfying their own needs. Both sides are trapped within the limitations of their childishness.
The eponymous Barbara Osika is excellent and helps compel what could have so easily have been a dry-as-dust academic exercise into the dramaturgical stratosphere. Director Jessica Hausner knows her subject very well and communicates it efficiently, effectively and without sentimentality.
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