The Realm of Shadows is a playful and melancholy fairy tale on what has become a classic theme; a story of our time about a child torn between divorced parents.When Laura is six, she can feel that her father is about to turn his back on the family. On a last trip with him, she has some unforgettable moments. He explains to her the riddle of the world using a picture book and together they wander around a romantic flea market where Laura gets a chapeau claque and dances with her father to music from an old gramophone. Her father does not go home with her. Laura then tries to evoke her lost world again. Her dolls come to life and the figures from a secret shadow play take her again on this last trip. Then a friend’s stupidity sets fire to the screen of the puppet theatre.Twenty years later, Laura tries to recapture her lost youth. She resolutely repairs the burnt shadow-show, which she finds in a cupboard in the attic. There too are the dolls which have waited twenty years for her. She wants the dance on the market back.Music plays a leading role in The Realm of Shadows. The adult Laura has a record shop, her mother is a singer and at the end of the film she sings ‘Le spectre de la rose’ by Hector Berlioz. Maybe that music can evoke Laura’s youth.Kees Hin made little use of psychology in portraying this family drama. He chose scenes with slightly-humorous elements; sobriety is always wrapped in a degree of light-heartedness.
