Nathan Grossman, Dir of the film ‘I Am Greta’ crafts a strong, heroic portrayal of Greta

#TIFF; #TIFF2020; #45thTorontoInternationalFilmFestival; #IAmGreta

Asha Bajaj
3 min readSep 25, 2020

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The intimate human portrayal of the 45th Toronto International Film Festival’s documentary film, ‘I Am Greta’ by the Swedish director and filmmaker Nathan Grossman, was done by Grossman’s following Greta ever since she was 15-year-old and was sitting alone outside of Sweden’s parliament with a protest sign: “School Strike for Climate” all the way through to her two-week sea voyage across the Atlantic to attend the United Nations Climate Summit in Sept. 2019.

I Am Greta. Image credit: TIFF

Greta’s blunt speeches on the climate crisis resulted in her rise from obscurity to international attention.

“Since our leaders are behaving like children, we will have to take the responsibility they should have taken long ago,” she tells delegates at a UN conference in Poland, Newsweek reports said. Her message inspires other young activists to take action around the world as part of the movement dubbed #FridaysForFuture.

I Am Greta. Image credit: Unsplash

Although famous for her viral videos, this film offers a unique view of Greta’s personal journey.

Her autism spectrum gave her the advantage of intense focus, but this very trait caused her to be shunned by classmates and staff in the school.

She said that she suffered from depression for several years and suffered severe weight loss after watching a film about climate change at school. Her activism gave her a purpose and allowed her to overcome those fears.

By revealing the effect of these trying moments on Thunberg, Grossman is successful in crafting Thunberg as stronger and more heroic than before, in a film that covers only the first stage of the ongoing story.

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Asha Bajaj

I write on national and international Health, Politics, Business, Education, Environment, Biodiversity, Science, First Nations, Humanitarian, gender, women