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Set Me Free

Play trailer Set Me Free 1999 1h 34m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
Watchlist Tomatometer Popcornmeter
83% Tomatometer 18 Reviews 79% Popcornmeter 100+ Ratings
In the 1960s, Hanna (Karine Vanasse), a teen girl with a troubled home life, finds solace in films, especially those starring actress Anna Karina, who reminds her of her schoolteacher (Nancy Huston). Hanna's father (Miki Manojlovic) is an unhappy poet, her mother (Pascale Bussières) is exhausted from work and their marriage is failing. Hanna finds support in her brother (Alexandre Merineau) and in Laura (Charlotte Christeler), a girl at school to whom she is becoming increasingly attracted.

Critics Reviews

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Marjorie Baumgarten Austin Chronicle 01/01/2000
4.5/5
The performances in Set Me Free are all gentle, lovely creations that are of a piece with the film's humanistic touch. Go to Full Review Lou Lumenick New York Post 01/01/2000
3/4
Tells its story so effectively through pictures it's barely necessary to read the subtitles. Go to Full Review Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times 01/01/2000
3/4
In some of its details, it resembles Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows. Go to Full Review Dennis Lim Out Magazine 05/24/2022
Vanasse gives a performance of unaffected grace, and Pool reveals a keen eye for the formative moments of adolescence. Go to Full Review B. Ruby Rich San Francisco Bay Guardian 02/26/2020
Pool has reached a new level entirely as writer-director of deeply emotional yet lightly humorous storytelling. Best of all, she's taken a genre known for its softness, the coming-of-age film, and put some bite into it. Go to Full Review Felicia Feaster Creative Loafing 01/29/2020
Tinctured with a feminist perspective, Set Me Free tends to see the world as a series of shiny traps set for young girls, a difficult path to adulthood made worse without a capable female role model. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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05/17/2013 A superb addition to the Quebec canon brought to you by Lea Pool who is very successful at bringing out strong emotions from her actors. Karine Vanasse is the beneficiary of her guidance. See more 04/28/2012 Lea Pool's film is a beautiful, lyrical portrayal of a young girl's growing up. A lovely meditation, Set Me Free never glosses over the difficulties of Hanna's life, but somehow manages to make everything both ire an urgent as well as just a phase of life that can't be escaped. See more 04/29/2010 Si Léa Pool utilise assez bien ses capacités en offrant un film qui s'écoute sommes toutes assez bien, on regrette toutefois cet abus de poids dramatique qui va décidément trop loin au point d'enlever une bonne partie de l'effet dramatique désiré. Plusieurs interprétations et dialogues faussent également. Malgré tout, certains moments s'avèrent magnifiques. See more 12/21/2009 Style Nouvelle-Vague à la Godard, j'adore! See more 02/04/2006 I found it to be a moving little French-Canadian film. Telling a pretty common story kind of took away from it being a truely superior film. See more Read all reviews
Set Me Free

My Rating

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Cast & Crew

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Léa Pool

Director

Karine Vanasse

Hanna

Alexandre Merineau

Paul, frère de Hanna

Pascale Bussières

Mère de Hanna

Miki Manojlovic

Père de Hanna

Charlotte Christeler

Laura

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Set Me Free

Set Me Free (1999) View more photos

Movie Info

Synopsis In the 1960s, Hanna (Karine Vanasse), a teen girl with a troubled home life, finds solace in films, especially those starring actress Anna Karina, who reminds her of her schoolteacher (Nancy Huston). Hanna's father (Miki Manojlovic) is an unhappy poet, her mother (Pascale Bussières) is exhausted from work and their marriage is failing. Hanna finds support in her brother (Alexandre Merineau) and in Laura (Charlotte Christeler), a girl at school to whom she is becoming increasingly attracted.
Director
Léa Pool
Producer
Lorraine Richard, Carole Scotta, Alfi Sinniger
Screenwriter
Nancy Huston, Léa Pool, Isabelle Raynault
Distributor
Merchant-Ivory Productions [us], Artistic License
Production Co
Catpics AG, Cité-Amérique, Haut et Court
Genre
Drama
Original Language
Canadian French
Release Date (Theaters)
Feb 12, 1999, Original
Box Office (Gross USA)
$73.4K
Runtime
1h 34m