2023-06-14 19:09:23
At the Annecy Festival, still reeling from the emotion of the attack on Thursday June 8, reality always catches up with fiction. Even if the event opens its doors more and more to blockbusters and American franchises offering fantastic and superheroic stories (Ninja Turtles, The Lord of the Rings, Spider-Man et Batmanthis year), the official selection of films, short or long, offers, halfway through the festival week, a fairly complete panorama of current events in the world.
School bullying in The Lonely Castle in the Mirrora conflict that has hit civilian populations hard in Mermaidartificial intelligence in Mars Expressor social movements in Linda wants chicken! and especially in Nina, the hedgehog’s secret…
In this last feature film, presented in preview at the festival, before its theatrical release on October 11, two children are the collateral victims of the closure of the factory where their parents worked. A closure due to embezzlement committed by the leader of the company, now under bars.
Nina, 10, becomes aware of the situation that overwhelms her father when he stops telling her stories at night, those of a hedgehog who discovers the world. To help him, she has the idea, with her friend Mehdi, of finding the money stolen by the thug boss that he has hidden in his factory.
Hardness of life and tenderness of human relationships
Carried by the spirit of adventure of the imaginary little hedgehog created by her father, Nina works out a plan with Mehdi to divert the attention of the adults, in particular the guard of the factory, and his big dog.
From Ken Loach to children’s height. This is what Alain Gagnol and Jean-Loup Felicioli seem to have tried to do. Because we find in the last – and alas ultimate – collaboration of this talented duo all the ingredients of the social drama softened by springs of family comedy: the hardness of life and its injustices contrast here, as with the British filmmaker, with the tenderness of human relations.
After a somewhat erratic start, the two directors then excel in the singular genre of animated thrillers for family audiences, which has made their mark with A cat’s life (nominated for the Oscars in 2012) and Phantom Boy. Two films that diverted the codes of the dark thriller to show the fortitude of children grappling with reality.
Carried by quality vocal interpretations and colorful dialogues, this funny and touching film is capable of restoring faith in a failing humanity, as the children are bearers of a message of hope.
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