LITTLE GIRL is the moving portrait of 7-year-old Sasha, who has always known that she is a girl. Sasha’s family has recently accepted her gender identity, embracing their daughter for who she truly is while working to confront outdated norms and find affirmation in a small community of rural France. Realized with delicacy and intimacy, Sébastien Lifshitz’s documentary poetically explores the emotional challenges, everyday feats, and small moments in Sasha’s life.
For in-depth thoughts on Little Girl, please see my colleague Mike Vaughn’s review from its original theatrical release here.
Video Quality
Little Girl comes to Blu-Ray in an AVC encoded transfer in its OAR courtesy of Music Box Films featuring some stunning cinematography. This footage which follows the subjects throughout their lives looks immaculate in high definition. This presentation is quite stunning and offers a stable image quality throughout. The documentary nature of the film translates well aesthetically with most shots looking simply breathtaking. The team captures some lovely shots and textures that really pop in high definition. Not only do the textural details render cleanly, but the splashes of color that add so much to the story radiate with a boldness. There is no evidence of compression artifacts or other digital nuisances of the sort. Skin tones look natural throughout the runtime. I do not see how this disc could have been improved visually because Music Box Films knocked it out of the park.
Audio Quality
The Blu-Ray disc comes with both a DTS-HD 5.1 and 2.0 Master Audio track in the original French that presents this material perfectly. Dialogue is the driving force of the film, and it comes through crisp and clear without being clipped by any competing sounds. The filmmakers do a really great job of capturing their subjects and making sure all this information comes through with supreme clarity. The music and the score establish the mood of the film, and those sounds are resolved well here as music often sleeks throughout the room. The chatter in the background of some of some moments provides a nice base texture to the proceedings. Ambient sounds from some of the environmental elements are precisely placed in the rear channels. The audio track is not pushed to the limit with this content, but it nonetheless proves to be an excellent sounding presentation for this feature. There are optional English SDH subtitles included for those who need them.
Special Features
- A Conversation From The New York Premiere: A 27-minute post-screening conversation with director Sébastien Lifshitz conducted in September 2021. In this piece, the director discusses how he came to this project, the process of getting connected with Sasha, the dynamic between parents, becoming a part of the family, how Sasha’s personality evolved with acceptance of her change and more. This is supplemented with clips from the films throughout.
- Interview with Director Sébastien Lifshitz: A 35-minute virtual interview in which Lifshitz discusses his feeling while shooting the film, the different personality traits of Sasha, balancing the narrative of the story, the need to remain objective, the length of the shooting process, obstacles in the filming process and more.
- Filmmaker Q&A from Rendez-Vous with French Cinema: A 31-minute Q&A in which Lifshitz covers some of the basics from the other interviews while also delving into some touching moments with Sasha, stories of representation, the family’s reaction to the film and more.
- Deleted Scenes: Eleven minutes of unused material is provided here primarily of an extended scene of a doctor going through some of the medical and legal procedures for Sasha and her mother with some footage of Sasha playing and thinking inserted throughout.
- Theatrical Trailer: The two-minute trailer is provided here.
Final Thoughts
Little Girl is both heartbreaking and optimistic as it tells this essential story of wanting to live authentically in a world that is not always progressive enough to make that easy. Director Sébastien Lifshitz has been entrusted by this family to tell Sasha’s story, and the filmmaker treats it with respect by never sugarcoating the struggles or shying away from the happy times. The craft of the filmmaking adds to the overall rewarding experience of this journey. Music Box Films Home Entertainment has released a Blu-Ray featuring a terrific A/V presentation and a pretty amazing selection of supplemental features. This is the type of documentary everyone should seek out to gain valuable new perspectives. Highly Recommended
Little Girl is currently available to purchase on Blu-Ray, DVD and Digital.
Note: Images presented in this review are not reflective of the image quality of the Blu-Ray.
Disclaimer: Music Box Films Home Entertainment has supplied a copy of this disc free of charge for review purposes. All opinions in this review are the honest reactions of the author.
Dillon is most comfortable sitting around in a theatre all day watching both big budget and independent movies.
