AllMovie

Desi is an 11-year-old girl from Amsterdam who is unusually strong and self-reliant for her age. However, in this documentary viewers learn that Desi's maturity came through necessity rather than chance; Desi's mother committed suicide when she was an infant, and her fractured, dysfunctional family was never able to establish a permanent guardian. After a day at school, Desi is never sure whether she'll be staying with her father, one of her surviving grandparents, or her best friend (the latter offering the closest thing to a stable home life that Desi has ever known). But despite the chaos of her life, Desi has managed to hold on to her optimism, while displaying a force of will that has allowed her to survive despite emotionally crippling circumstances. Desi was produced for Dutch television, but earned screenings at the 2001 Rotterdam Film Festival and the 2001 Amsterdam Documentary Film Festival.