Bille

BILLE is the bittersweet chronicle of a child of the Great Depression growing up poor in the ever-widening gap in her parents' unhappy marriage. Meticulously evocative production design creates a nostalgic historical view, while bringing the alternate reality of an imaginative little girl's escapist fantasy of "Dreamland" to life. A gifted child noticed by teachers and other adults but disdained by her angry hard-bitten mother and stern grandmother, plain but precocious Bille is the apple of her drunkard father's eye, and an impish ringleader among the street-running neighboring children. The ethnic German family of her best friend and partner in adventures is preparing to leave town for good, hinting at the political changes that loom at the edge of Bille's insular world.