Sister

Simon (Kacey Mottet Klein) is a young teenager living with his older sister Louise (Lea Seydoux) in a tiny apartment in a run-down building within eye-shot of a lavish tourist ski resort in the Swiss Alps. Louise spends long periods of time missing from the apartment, leaving Simon to fend for himself, or for them both when she returns from her 'trips' with no money and a black eye. Simon provides for them both by travelling up to the resort and stealing skiing equipment from the rich tourists, and then selling it on to the locals.

During his times at the resort, Simon has encounters with Mike (Martin Compston), a chef at a fancy restaurant, and Kristin (Gillian Anderson), a caring and wealthy mother of two. The question of his parent’s whereabouts comes up, and his shady responses let us know that something is not quite right about his home life.

Set against the stunning backdrop of the beautiful mountain range, Sister is at its heart quite an ugly movie. Much like the winter season it takes place in, the lead characters are not easy to warm to; Simon should invoke a sense of pity but instead he just comes off as an intolerable brat, while Louise is entirely self-serving and single-minded. Mike and Kristin fare better, but that is most likely down to the fact that Compston and Anderson imbue their characters with actual likability.

Ursula Meier directs in a pleasingly unfussy manner, just letting the actors carry the weight of the story without much help from a cloying soundtrack or intrusive camerawork. But despite the cast and crew’s best efforts, Sister is just too slight, too cold and too depressing to find any kind of audience to give it (much like Simon) the love it is so clearly craving for.