White oleander compared with empire of the sun
...others and foster homes after her mother Ingrid (Michelle Pfeiffer) goes to prison for committing a crime of passion. While she struggles to come to master the techniques of survival in these conflicting worlds and ever-changing environments she is thrown into a spiral every time she sees her seductive yet destructive mother. Through characterisation, Ingrid has a powerful influence on Astrid, this can be seen through camera angles used, this causes her to repeatedly get kicked out of foster homes; her mother tries to hold her back from getting close to any of the foster families or adopting any of their values. This makes life difficult, but the more Astrid is moved around the more she learns, the stronger she becomes and, the further she drifts away from her mother. Astrid’s growing confidence is part of her right of passage. She is undergoing emancipation as set out in the closing stages of the film; she goes to see her mother one last time to get answers so she can move on with her life, before leaving she asks her mother “let me go.” Through dialogue this symbolises the ending of bitter journey and later when Astrid is asked what happened with her mother she replies “she let me go” referring to Ingrid letting Astrid move on to the beginning of the next stage...