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Good Girl (2019)

Original title in Finnish: "Kiltti Tyttö"

Students film | Drama Duration 11:56

Plot summary

Merja Maijanen's short film about domestic violence.

Maria, 9, a happy, social girl has gotten a smiling statue from school for being nice and trustworthy. At home Maria shows the statue to her parents who are extremely proud of her. Later in the evening her mother gets ready to go to a Christmas party while Maria loses over and over to her dad in a lying card game.
During the night Maria wakes up scared and goes to look for her parents. She sees fallen Christmas tree and her smiling statue broken. She hears sounds of violence, unsure if her mother survives from her dad beating her up.
In the morning her mother wakes her up, and when Maria tells what she saw and her hatred towards her father, she's not accepted by her mother. Her mother tells it was just a dream, that everything is ok. Maria goes to look around, unsure if it was a dream or not, and everything seems fine: even the smiling girl statue is in one piece and she gets relieved.
When she goes closer, she sees the statue has been glued together. Her mother realizes she knows the truth, but nobody says anything. Her father asks them to play cards and they all start playing, pretending like nothing ever happened.

Keywords: mother-daughter relationship | father-daughter relationship | childhood trauma | girl | violent relationships in family | View all »

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