Nelly

In the end all 13-year-old Nelly wants to do is rest. In the beginning she is behind the wheel of a car driving through a wintry landscape. Her mother is lying on the back seat. She is not feeling well. Suddenly Nelly is standing in a hospital corridor. The situation is unreal. A stern woman gives her directions. Nelly climbs a steep spiral staircase to a gloomy government office where a man talks with a monotonous voice into a recorder: became a complete orphan two days ago, no living relatives, can be accommodated in a new family. The man asks Nelly questions, how she envisages her first encounter with her new family for instance. But Nelly’s thoughts begin to drift: a boy in a Russian fur hat, a diving platform at a swimming pool. A little toy figure hammering out a rhythm on a drum. Something is out of step, and appearances are deceptive. A precise, stylised Kafkaesque case history.