Film

Summer 1993

Name: Summer 1993
Genre: Drama
Released: 2017
Cast: Laia Artigas, Paula Robles, Bruna Cusí, David Verdaguer, Fermí Reixach

Drama

A Catalan film about a six-year-old girl grieving her mother's death while adjusting to life with relatives in the countryside. It's tender and unsentimental, told largely through Frida's perspective—what she sees, what confuses her, what she can't yet process. For anyone who remembers childhood loss, or wants to watch a film that trusts children and audiences alike.

TMDb rating

3.5

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are drawn to quiet, observational films that trust a child's point of view, where grief shows up in small gestures, childhood games and awkward silences rather than big scenes.

Skip it if you need plot momentum or a clear arc to stay engaged, since much of the film is watching a grieving six-year-old drift through ordinary days with little explained.

What it asks of you: Settle in for a leisurely ninety-eight minutes, with long unhurried scenes, a gentle pace and sadness that arrives quietly, leaving you to read the feelings yourself.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

A Ghost Story2017

Explores grief and time with patient, poetic intensity. Like Summer 1993, it refuses easy catharsis and instead sits with the weight of absence. Both films trust silence and small gestures over explanation.

But Deliberately slow and meditative. The central conceit—a ghost under a sheet—may sound gimmicky, but the film earns its melancholy deliberately.

The Last Waltz1978

Scorsese's documentary about loss disguised as a concert film. The band is breaking up; underneath the music is goodbye. Like Summer 1993, it catches the moment when everything changes and no one can quite say it out loud.

But It's a concert film from 1978, so if live music footage bores you, the emotional thread won't carry you through.

The Worst Person in the World2021

Norwegian film about a young woman navigating life, love, and identity across chapters. Shares Summer 1993's gift for capturing how people—especially young people—experience moments before they understand them.

But At two and a half hours, it's leisurely. The protagonist is sometimes infuriating. Neither is a flaw, but both require patience.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Summer 1993

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Come and See1985

Childhood interrupted by forces beyond understanding; the camera's unflinching perspective on what the young witness.

A Belarusian boy watches war destroy everything. This is a film about childhood shattered—the inverse of Summer 1993's journey. Where that film is a girl learning to live with loss, this is a child losing the capacity to be innocent. Both ask what happens to a child when the world becomes incomprehensible.

But Horrifyingly violent and nihilistic. It's a necessary film about atrocity, not an entertainment. Watching it is not pleasant, and it shouldn't be.

Moonlight2016

Three chapters of a Black boy's life in Miami, each one a complete world. Like Summer 1993, it privileges image and mood over exposition, and trusts you to feel what the character feels.

But Nonlinear, dreamlike narrative. If you need plot momentum, this will frustrate you. If you need music and colour instead of dialogue, you've found it.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople2016

A New Zealand boy and an old man in the bush. The grief and love are real, the humour never cheapens them, and the landscape becomes a character. A masterclass in tonal balance that Summer 1993 also achieves.

But The tonal shifts—funny, then painful, then funny again—can feel jarring if you're not in the mood for them.

Boyhood2014

Shot over twelve years, following a boy from childhood to adulthood. Like Summer 1993, it's patient with time and resistant to neat emotional arcs. Change happens quietly, and that's the whole point.

But Three hours long. The lack of traditional plot structure exhausts some viewers. It's not a story so much as a record.

A Brighter Summer Day1991

Four hours of Taiwanese life in the 1960s, centred on a teenage boy at an inflection point. Edward Yang's camera catches the texture of living, the way Summer 1993 does—moments of beauty nested in confusion and pain.

But Extremely long and in Mandarin with subtitles. The pacing is deliberate. You need to surrender to it entirely.

Il Posto1961

Italian neorealist gem about a teenage boy trying to find his place in the world. Gentle, funny, deeply sad. It shares Summer 1993's eye for how ordinary life can be both mundane and momentous.

But Very quiet. Almost nothing happens by conventional standards. If you need plot events, you'll lose patience.

Petite Maman2021

A child's way of metabolizing maternal loss through the world around her; both films honour what children can create from grief.

A French girl meets her mother as a child in the woods. Pure magical realism—fantastical, not tragic. But it's also about a girl processing her mother's death, and it arrives at the same place Summer 1993 does: acceptance through imagination and play.

But Whimsical in a way that doesn't work for everyone. Some will find it precious. It's also very short—less than an hour—which leaves less to grab onto.

A Prophet2009

A protagonist learning the hidden rules of a closed world; adaptation as survival; the camera watching, rarely judging.

A French-Swiss prison drama about a young man learning to survive in an incomprehensible system. Not a children's film at all—it's brutal and adult. But it shares Summer 1993's structural DNA: watch a protagonist adapt to a world that doesn't love them, using wit and silence to survive.

But It's a prison movie with violence, sexual assault, and corruption. The milieu is dark. It demands emotional investment in someone who does terrible things.