Lunar Girl highlights many social problems, without making you feel that you’re being preached to in any way and touches on some environmental issues just long enough to make you think.
-
Radiation
from Mobile Phones
In one of the early scenes Bebette almost casually points out that ‘mobile phones can cook your brain’ without going into the radiation or brain tumour scenarios. - Rainforest
destruction
We then have Bebette’s uncle commenting on the post being ‘half a rain forest’. On the envelope of one of the letters he receives is written ‘save energy’. -
Infertility
Bebettes aunt Jackie is having problems conceiving. Her sadness, (and Bebette’s), is reflected without the problem being discussed between them. - Feelings
of Inadequacy
Only a conversation between Bebette’s uncle Jake and a work colleague has any mention of how inadequate a man can feel when he has to face up to the prospect that he may be unable to father a child. -
Secret
Teenage Abortion
During this conversation ‘Beth’ tells him that she had an abortion when she was only sixteen and that she’s never gotten over the loss of her child and how she’d kept it a secret for years, never discussing it with anyone, not even her parents or the child’s father. -
Hyperactivity
& ADHD
Bebette feels she is happy and normal and doesn’t need treatment because she has an unusual personality. -
Drugs
Bebette believes that amphetamines and tranquillisers are serious drugs as opposed to ‘medication’ and that it’s wrong for a child to be forced to take drugs because their personality is regarded as ‘different’. -
Homelessness
Bebette encounters young homeless people who give their accounts for the reasons that led them to become homeless. -
Sexual
Abuse
One of the teenager’s talk about sexual abuse by her stepfather and about her mother not believing her. -
Eviction
and Bereavment:
One of the young men gives an account of being evicted from his home after his mother died, while he was still grief-stricken and trying to come to terms with the loss of his mother. - Bereavement
Mental illness & inadvertent Child Abuse:
One of the homeless teenagers talks about her father having a breakdown and becoming mentally ill after the death of her mother and resulting in serious child abuse. - Running
Away From Home:
The homeless teenagers recount their reasons for running away, which highlights the fact that it is often through no fault of their own that young people end up living on the streets. - Death
& Spirituality:
Discussions between Bebette and her uncle Jake about the belief in Life after death. - Growing
Up:
A discussion between Bebette and her uncle Jake about how life-changing experiences can sometimes be part of the process of growing up. - Belief
in yourself:
A conclusion of how, if you believe in yourself, anything is possible.
