Portrait of the author as a puppy – The heart of the tin soldier

Original title: Il cuore del soldatino

A fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen, one of the few memories of a normally happy childhood. But where are all the other memories gone? Why did they disappear? Can films and photographs from our first years give us back the emotions and feelings of what we have lived? As we looked at them, could we maybe understand the price paid for a normally happy childhood?

Although it is a short film, this film cost me much weariness. I don’t know if it gives some answers to the questions posed. A possible solution may be in Andersen’s tale. Andersen is a storyteller who does not let victims and persecutors making up. The author of The Heart of the Tin Soldier always acknowledges the suffering in childhood, as it is denied, manipulated and made feel guilty for the sake of education and imposition of rules. And as soon as the child grows up, he starts thinking of himself with a sense of guiltiness or proud of transgressive choices. Ignoring that both ways are just surviving strategies against the lack of love.