The Other Side of Sunday

A 1996 Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Film, The Other Side of Sunday is a coming-of-age story set in Norway in the 1950s. Maria (Marie Theisen), a blossoming 16-year-old, is beginning to question her community's rigid religious lifestyle -- in part because of her troubled relationship with her father, the local church's unrelentingly priggish minister, who cares more for his congregation than for his family. Berit Otto Nesheim's heavyhanded direction tips the scales in favor of Marie's emerging sexuality against the haggard faces of the parishioners. Dad, too, comes off as unredeemable -- he's been conducting an affair with a church elder Marie has come to admire. Theisen's performance, however, redeems both the film and the director's hamfisted approach; supported by Arne Borsheim's lush cinematography, she evokes the magic of dawning sensuality. Screens at the Kendall Square Friday the 12th at 7 and 9:30 p.m. and Saturday the 13th at noon and 2:15 and 4:30 p.m.

-- Michael Rausch

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