The Tale

Jennifer’s (Laura Dern) life is turned upside down with one phone call from her mother, who has discovered a bunch of letters from Jennifer’s childhood. The content of some of these letters is quite disturbing, as they describe her first sexual experience as a 13-year-old. Jennifer suddenly has to question and re-examine her own memories of the experiences, which she has been romanticising up until now.

There can be no doubt that this is a very important film. It was the clear highlight of this year’s Sundance festival for many critics, who could also describe many completely stunned audience members, sitting through the full credits with an intense need to talk about what they had just seen. This is harsh, but important viewing. Cinematically, the storytelling challenges are solved in a very creative and innovative manner: The same memories are re-told in several different flashbacks, with variations that makes the meaning of each scene change drastically with each re-visit. This is executed seamlessly by director Jennifer Fox, whose background is in documentary film.

The Tale is based on Fox’s own childhood memories, and is a truly one of a kind film about how we construct histories around our own memories and traumas in an attempt to live with them.