Kafia, a teenager who escaped a forced marriage in Somalia and ended up in Hungary at age 15, undergoes more change in two years than most people do in a lifetime. She acclimatizes to her new life with impressive composure and capacity, mastering the Hungarian language, learning how to swim, modelling, working part-time, preparing for final exams and converting from Islam to Christianity. Her hectic schedule shows one face, while her whispered Somali voice-over lets an entirely different one slip. Kafia, who was raised to hide her hurt and bury her feelings, starts to crack as she breaks away from the values, taboos, dogmas and dress she was brought up with. Easy Lessons is a restrained record of the seismic personal and cultural changes that come with leaving everything you know behind. But it isn't until the final scene that we discover the one thing Kafia misses most about home. Angie Driscoll
The Changing Face of Europe program presented in partnership with European Film Promotion (EFP).