Siblings - For Better Or Worse

Children's world views are among the least represented in documentary filmmaking. Siblings - For Better Or Worse comprises a collection of four short documentary features - each dealing with a different set of circumstances. They're all well made. The standouts are Stuck In The Middle and Me Without You.

In Stuck In The Middle, Nicolaj is 12 years old. He's the middle child between Oliver and Tobias. He's distinctly unhappy with being the middle child - he "always feel[s] squeezed". He's antagonised by the lack of a mobile phone or a Facebook account, and also by his own lack of physical strength. He feels that he cannot share in the freedoms of either sibling. After a frustrating argument with his brothers, he leaves the house without a word to his parents, going to a game trading card store, and spends time on his skateboard to alleviate his stress.

He's an engaging, thoughtful child, if perpetually grumpy and fed up with his lot in the family. Even so, he's contemplative. A long direct-to-camera monologue has him trying to express his siblings' personalities as landscapes - his own as the Danish countryside in the middle of summer, Oliver as the deep strong ocean, and his younger brother as varied as the mountainside cliffs. He also astutely describes each of them through his trading card pictures.

There's an interesting shot of Oliver and Nikolaj skateboarding together. They wobble and bounce, all the while holding hands. The family is strong, regardless of the place he takes.

In Me Without You, we follow eight-year-old No - a young. bespectacled boy with buck-teeth and adorable dimples. His much older sister is leaving for Japan in six days as an exchange student. No and his sister are obviously close, yet he is self-aware enough to know how much his sister's departure means to him. He's clearly upset, although doesn't show it until the night before leaving.

The last moments are tremendously touching - he fastidiously documents her going through the airport using his cameraphone. Their last embraces are especially sad - they repeat "I love you" endlessly.

They keep in touch through Skype, and indulge in long, large webcam hugs (It looks silly, but it's sweet) with the whole family. The film doesn't cover the eventual catharsis, but we're left convinced that he'll be all right.