My Life as a Courgette

Swiss stop-motion animation following a young orphan from the pen of Girlhood director Céline Sciamma

After debuting at the Cannes Film Festival last year, My Life as a Courgette has now gone on to snag an Oscar nomination for best animation, and it's easy to see why.

In the Oscar race, it's pitted against a double whammy from the House of Mouse, who have Zootopia and Moana; Laika’s Kubo and the Two Strings; and Wild Bunch/Studio Ghibli’s co-production The Red Turtle. It is a tight race, but this tender French stop-motion animation based on the YA novel by Gilles Paris holds its own. It's a remarkable, emotionally nuanced tale, that with a runtime of a little over an hour manages to tug at the heartstrings in a simply crafted yet tender story.

As the film opens we're introduced to Icare, a young bobble-headed boy who prefers to go by the moniker Courgette. He has a shock of blue hair, and eyes that betray a life of anxiety and fear. Living in a world realised in a wash of pallid greys with only rare splashes of vibrant colour, we find him cowering in an attic room away from what lurks below.

Looming at the edge of the frame is the shadow of his drink-addled mother, who is reeling from the sudden departure of her husband who “liked chicks” a little too much. In a freak accident, his mother dies, and little Courgette is taken into care where he must adjust to living with other children from broken homes. The only souvenirs from his past life are an empty beer can, and a kite he made with a picture of his father as a superhero on one side, and then a giant baby chicken on the other – a bittersweet detail of childlike naivety of his parents' failed marriage due to his father’s obsession with ‘chicks’.

The children at the foster home all have their own tragic tale. There is a girl that was abused by her father, another whose mother was deported back to Africa when she was at school, and a young girl, Camille, who witnessed her father kill her mother before committing suicide and on whom Courgette develops a crush.

Suffice to say, this isn't material you would expect to find in most children’s films, at least not displayed so openly. Courgette's frankness – that ranges from sexual awakenings (jokes about exploding penises) juxtaposed with hard-hitting moments about domestic violence – is what gives the film its emotional resonance, drawing us into the plight and lives of the residents of this foster home. It's a frankness that comes, in part, from the skill of Claude Barrass and the screenplay written by Girlhood’s Céline Sciamma. For all the sadness of this story, at the core is a defiant message of hope, teaching us that a tragic beginning doesn’t have to lead to a tragic end, and that for all the failings of society, a mere act of kindness can go a long way.

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My Life as a Courgette screened at Glasgow Film Festival and is released 2 Jun by Thunderbird Releasing

Read more about Glasgow Film Festival in The CineSkinny – in print at Glasgow Film Festival venues and online at theskinny.co.uk/film/cineskinny