La Faute à Fidel! (Julie Gavras, 2006)

Blame it on Fidel is centred on the attempts of a nine-year-old girl in early '70s Paris to make sense of the weird behaviour of her parents as they become left-wing activists and take to spending more time worrying about the plight of the Chilean people and women seeking abortions than they do about about their kids. At the outset, the girl is spoilt and strident in her peer-pressure-driven demands, and before long the urge to strangle her will arise, but at least this gives plenty of room for character development and the film has a reasonable go at exposing the hypocrisies of adults on both sides of the political fence too through a variation of subtly acerbic and cutely comic moments. It is nevertheless heavily dependent on the feisty little lead for the whole to hold together, so it's a blessing that the casting got this so right: the actress chosen is at once a miniature grown-up and a petulant child, and completely credible in the role.

6/10