19/02/2023 - BERLINALE 2023: In Zara Dwinger’s Generation Kplus charmer, you have to scream at least once a day or you will go insane

“When did you last see your mother?”
“I don’t remember,” says a small girl in Kiddo [+see also:
trailer
interview: Zara Dwinger
film profile]. Lu (Rosa van Leeuwen) does know a couple of things about her mum Karina (Frieda Barnhard), however: she smells of oranges, lives in Hollywood and even does her own stunts. She also disappoints her sometimes, especially when she doesn’t pick her up from her foster home. Although she promised she would make it this time.

But here’s the thing: when she finally does show up, it’s like magic. Lu will do everything to please this unpredictable creature – even let herself be kidnapped with nothing but a pet snake stuffed into a backpack. They jump into a car and head straight to Poland, Karina’s home country, pretending to be two outlaws fleeing the world. They put on wigs and dine and dash, you name it, but every adventure is bound to run out of gas at some point.

Not for Karina, who is happy to play pretend. She has been doing it all her life. There is a suggestion of something darker at play, some trauma or instability, in this Berlinale Generation Kplus-screened movie, but director Zara Dwinger sticks to the point of view of a smitten child, not a concerned adult.

This means that, for the most part, it’s an upbeat story – a retro-flavoured road movie where time is far from pressing for the protagonists. Karina looks like a 1970s babe, listens to Dusty Springfield and mentions Bonnie and Clyde. She creates her own reality because she, too, has been disappointed. Talk about a vicious circle of one person depriving another of the very same thing she always wanted.

It's a recognisable problem and, ultimately, a recognisable plot, with one more child who has to grow up too quickly, who can’t completely relax, ever, because the parent is not to be trusted. But the idea for it to also play out inside of Karina’s head, in a way, embracing her imagination and her dreams, takes it miles away – literally – from your typical social drama.

“You have to scream at least one time a day or you will go insane,” she tells her daughter, just like Liza Minnelli in Cabaret, who also taught her friend how to let it all out. She has something to offer, after all, and not just an old car and half-true stories – she is her mum. But Dwinger doesn’t believe in fairy tales: she believes in two people, however small, working on their relationship, instead of making promises they can’t possibly keep.

Kiddo was written by the director and Nena van Driel. It was produced by Dutch outfit Studio Ruba, with Skoop Media handling the international sales.