Who is Fidel? That's Fidel Castro.
The story was told from Anna's perspective and it captures the coming-of-age moment when children realize the contraditions of adulthood and have to make their own choices.
Anna was a precocious nine year-old Catholic school girl who likes Bible study and etiquette class. Her father Fernando was a Spanish descendant and a well-paid lawyer. Her mother Marie wrote for Marie Claire, a popular women's magazine. Anna has a little brother, François, who's naughty sometimes. Caught up in the political revolution sweeping France in the early 70s, Fernando and Marie reject the comforts of their bourgeois life and dedicate themselves full time to radical activism. This comes as a shock to Anna, who struggles to understand her parents' newfound ideals.
First, she didn't understand why Marga, Fernando's sister, and her daughter Pilar could not go back to Spain. Nanny Filomena told Anna they were communists. She has no compassion towards them because she was a Cuban outcast and lossed everything because of Fidel Castro. Second, she didn't understand why they had to leave the big house and moved to a small apartment, why the aparment was always full of red and bearded communists, why she and her brother did not have any sundaying with their parents but rather joining strangers to attend group solidarity (that's Fernando's euphemism for protest), why their parents spent all their time on political activism in Chile, a country far away from France. Third, Greek nanny and Vietnamese nanny told her different stories about the creation of the world which contradicts what she learned in Bible study class. What's more, Marie started to interview women about their life experiences and wrote articles to advocate abortion. (Abortion was illegal in France before 1975.) She was very confused at the time. However, Anna learned things through conversation and started to explain everything in her own way and make her choices independently.
I really like this movie and recommend it to all parents. Do not try to impose your belief upon others. Let them choose.
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