I’ve had the book on order from the Library for quite awhile, but the movie arrived before the book. This is a beautiful story about a very ugly time in Germany’s history. Liesel is a young German girl who has been sent to live with a foster family; we never know for certain why (was her mother a Communist or Jewish?). She forms an immediate connection with her foster father, but finds her foster mother a little more difficult. She arrives not knowing how to read or write, but over the course of the movie her love for books grows. The narrator (God? Death?) ties up all the loose ends.

When Fanie Fourie, a young Afrikaner, falls in love with Dinky Magubane, a beautiful Zulu woman, he doesn’t realize what her lobola (bride price) will cost him. Dinky is also pursued by Mandla, a man who shares her traditions and understands very well what her family expects from him. There is no doubt that Fanie and Dinky share a real love, but their families are not as happy with their relationship. This was the first (and only) comedy of the festival!

Often during the Film Festival we are seeing movies that I’ve never heard of. This was the exception as I looked forward to seeing the movie even before it was announced that it would be coming. The theatre was packed; not an empty seat in the house! I enjoyed the film, but I was also a bit disappointed. I had heard interviews about the “real” story and there was so much more to it than was portrayed in the film. I’ll definitely be ordering the book from the library – like many other in Powell River I expect.