André Kadi & Karine Vézina's HOLA FRIDA is a look at the childhood of Frida Kahlo, of the onset of the illness that would confine her to bed for long periods and the flights of imagination that would inform her painting.
This is the third film in three years from director Kadi whose DOUNIA films played NYICFFl the last two years. It's also the weakest. This isn't to say it's bad, rather it's not as compelling as the earlier films. The reason for this is simple, in the earlier films Kadi had a strong narrative to keep us interested. We were following a young girl as she went from war torn Syria to Canada. Here we have the life of a little girl as she is struck down with polio and recovers. The narrative is very loose and as a the result the film never builds momentum out side of the sequences. Honestly until you get the time jump forward of the day of Kahlo's near fatal bus accident this could have been anyone's story. It also doesn't help that some of the sequences which are wonderful on their own, don't build to anything (The imaginary friend/death sequences, while some of the best sequences in the film seem to belong in a longer different film, here they feel just dropped in. Then again Kadi had issues with the blending of reality and magic in his earlier films)
Again this isn't to say the film is bad, it's not, its a bright and beautiful coming of age tale. The problem, at least for me is that the director's earlier two films were so much more compelling that HOLA suffers from a mental comparrison. I know you aren't supposed to do it, but it happened.
Definitely worth a look.
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