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Meet Hanna, a teenage girl and her wild imagination. Just as wild is Hanna’s unconventional family, whom we are introduced to at the beginning of the story through the eyes of the peculiar 14-year old, reminding us that she herself will be turning 15 in a couple of weeks time. Hanna’s family consists of the sometimes strange and very colourful Mana, her mother and resident painter and artist of the family.
Her father, Gavin – who is a gay fashion designer, was an old friend and roommate of Hanna’s mother. Mana at the time wanted to have a child but without a husband, so he was the perfect candidate, and though he left when she was 10 months old, it was all in good spirit and according to Mana’s wishes. Gavin has been keeping in touch through the years and has managed to install a strange yet lasting presence with Hanna.
As for Hanna’s current stepfather, Beyers – a seasoned and semiretired actor, even she has to admit that her mother’s choice in a second husband was not all that bad. The remaining brew to the family consists of the two eight-year-old boys – Tibo and Amos – as well as Yann. Tibo, being Hanna’s half-brother – the other half belonging to an anonymous donor in America. Then there is Amos who is eight and his brother the sixteen-year-old Yann, compliments of Beyers and ex-wife Margot.
No sooner after meeting these characters, in the way Hanna perceives them, one realises there is more to her than just her peculiar family. She also entertains fictional characters conjured up in her extremely creative imagination. She dreams up Fabienne, a reflection of her alter ego, and girl of the same age. Amongst other things, Fabienne’s family is the total opposite of her own, being distinctive and professional.
Hanna’s mother Mana and hubby Beyers think it is a good idea to take the whole family along on their long-delayed honeymoon, which can double-up as a much-needed family vacation, or so they hoped. Needless to say Hanna and siblings, step or otherwise, are not so keen on the idea. What’s worse is that she will be stuck on a mountain in the middle of nowhere with all of them, in a dilapidated house with no electricity on her fifteenth birthday.
After some resistance and a journey worth elaborating on – Hanna and family arrive on Botterberg. What follows is a series of events, mishaps, family bonding and even the birth of a child. Her best friend Sharon, who secretly is falling in love with Yann, joins Hanna. Gavin makes his dramatic entrance only as a gay fashion designer crawling trough the rain and mud can, reuniting with his “long-lost” teenage daughter.
The coming of the second queen, figuratively speaking, would be that of Beyers’ ex-wife Margot, coming especially all the way from Hollywood. She is a B-rated movie actress and aerobics instructor, who herself has a lot of catching up to do with her two sons.
All these people together, under one roof in the middle of the mountains, promises a few good laughs as well as one or two surprises. But things really get interesting when on account of severe rainy weather – they end up stranded in the house with nowhere to go and nobody else to turn to but each other.
Release Date : 13 Aug 2010