Miss Kicki

Colour, 35 mm
Sweden, Taiwan, 2009, 88 min
Section: Variety Critics’ Choice

Synopsis

A Swedish mother and son head to the Far East in search of their identities and new relationships in this Taiwanese-Swedish co-pro. The pic recalls early Wim Wenders with its meandering tone and revealing searches across alien landscapes. After a 12-year stint in the United States, aging good-time girl Kicki is reunited with her emotionally shut-down teenage son, Viktor, in Sweden. In an effort to get reacquainted, Kicki invites him to join her on vacation in Taiwan. Kicki’s hidden agenda is that Taipei is also home to a businessman with whom she has been conducting an Internet romance. While Kicki drinks and procrastinates, Viktor explores the city and strikes up a friendship with a maybe-gay Taiwanese teen. The untangling of Viktor’s escapades compounds errors in Kicki’s own misadventures.