Hola Frida (2024 | France & Canada | 82 minutes | André Kadi & Karine Vézina)
Friday Kahlo is known for her self-possessed, unfazed take on the world and her art. She found beauty in the every day, pride in her culture and refused to adhere to societal norms. What could have made her an outcast instead made her unique empathetic and adored and most importantly exceptionally creative. Hola Frida is an attempt to explore her early life, both the tragedies and spiritual journey she experienced that shaped who she would become as an adult and artist. Animation and a light-hearted tone, no matter where the story takes us, allows for an all-ages audience.
If you’ve got a young movie watcher at home, this is a fabulous film to spend your time on and learn a little about this incredible woman. I really appreciated the straight-forward way they discussed and portrayed the emotional impact of her physical limitations early in life. They also spoke to spiritual experiences that the character was having. I know less about Kahlo than I should, so I can’t say whether this is something that she’s discussed at length, but I do know spirituality played a large role in her work… though not in the traditional sense. From the narrative it seems that she believes in entities like death (understandable since her identity is tightly woven with Mexican beliefs and lore) and her suffering and pain play a big part in how that spirituality manifested. Perhaps this is what the director was most intent on sharing.
The depth of this larger than life figure can’t easily be portrayed in a standard feature film, so Hola Frida being an animated movie had to pick and choose what story they wanted to tell and it seems that her beginnings, the youth that informed her adulthood, is what the tale they wanted to tell. At first I was a little off-put by the narrowed lens that they took, but I’m realizing now that there are many lessons for young viewers to gain from this film and as I mentioned it is obvious that they are the intended audience. The only complaint I might have is that they didn’t have her speak more Spanish, even if just dotted here and there, would have given it more authenticity and emphasized her deeply-rooted Mexican identity.
Hola Frida arrived in theaters on 8/8/25 with Seattle showings TBA