Educational Media Reviews Online

Torill Kove's charming embroidered family chronicle is placed within Norway's own history during World War II. She cleverly provides a brief account of Norway's own monarchy to situate her grandmother as official royal shirt presser. When the Nazis occupy Norway, the grandmother mobilizes other laundresses to sabotage German uniforms, and in her own way helps the Resistance and her beloved king. Being the traditionalist that she is, in the 1960's she retires, disgusted with the state of fashion.

Combining family lore with historical events in the true tradition of storytelling, the filmmaker manages to engage the viewer in the appreciation of how an anecdote can acquire mythical proportions. Her animation style clearly and crisply illustrates the narrative but also provides sharp comedic touches to round out the text. Remarkably, this is Torill Kove's first professional film. Continuing in the National Film Board of Canada's animation tradition of Neighbours (Norman McLaren, 1952) and The Big Snit (Richard Condie, 1985), this film about the effects of war is rendered with heart-felt whimsy and can be appreciated and enjoyed by both children and adults for different reasons: Children will easily understand the facts and adults will applaud the visual nuances.

As is typical with NFB material, this video comes with a sheet of discussion questions for general viewers as well as for younger viewers. It could be used as the starting point to workshops on genealogical investigation, courses on storytelling, or as a primer for WWII history for young children. Very highly recommended.