The best of french Youth cinema in Artis

The Automn break is drawing closer. A great opportunity to take your children to the cinema. And what if the film were enjoyable to you as well ?

Lucky you, the “magical child” film festival will be taking place from 20 October until 28 October, at Artis cinema!

We have selected for you 5 French magical films that will delight both children and adults.

“Phantom Boy“ (2015)

Leo, an 11 year old boy living in New York city and he has a secret. A mysterious illness has transformed him into a phantom boy, able to leave the confines of his body and explore the city as a ghostly apparition. While in hospital, he befriends Alex, a New York City police officer injured while attempting to capture a nefarious gangster who has taken control of the city’s power supply, throwing the metropolis into chaos. Now they must form an extraordinary duo, using Leo’s phantom powers and Alex’s detective work to foil the plot and save New York from destruction.

Phantom Boy is directed by Jean-Loup Felicioli and written by Alain Gagnol. The artists are well-known of the Estonian public for their film “A cat in Paris” that got nominated to the Oscars.

“Sophie’s misfortunes”

In this new adaptation of the Countess of Ségur’s iconic books, film director Christophe Honoré brings back to life, with nostalgia, Sophie’s misadventures. The Countess of Segur remains to this day France’s best-selling children’s author.

Sophie is a naughty little girl living in a castle, in nineteenth century France. She simply cannot resist disobeying her mother and engaging in mischievous pranks, accompanied by her cousin Paul. When her parents announce the family moving to America, Sophie is thrilled. One year later she comes back to France with her horrible step-mother, Madame Fichini. But Sophie can rely on her two friends, the Good Little Girls, and their mother, Madame de Fleurville, to help her from falling into the awful lady’s clutches.

‘My life as a courgette’ (2016)

Cannes festival 69th edition really got taken with this beautifully animated film.

Director Claude Barras isn’t afraid to tackle difficult subject matter and breathes life into his claymation characters to tell the story of children at a foster-care centre.

When nine-year-old Icare accidentally causes the death of his alcoholic mother, he is accompanied to the Fontaines group home by kind policeman Raymond. He at first finds it difficult to fit in, and is desperately homesick. He soon learns that the other children in the home, Simon, Ahmed, Jujube, Alice, have endured similarly traumatic circumstances. With the help of the other kids at the centre Courgette begins rebuilding his life.

This is a story that could have been devastatingly dark, but it addresses issues with subtlety and delicacy. My Life as a Courgette is authentic, empathetic, and ultimately uplifting.

The script  is adapted from Gilles Paris’ novel Autobiography of a Courgette.

“Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock heart “ (2013)

Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart is an animated feature film based on the concept album by the French rock band Dionysos, and on the illustrated novel “La mecanique du coeur’ written by the band’s lead singer Mathias Malzieu. The music of the film was entirely composed by Dionysos.

In Scotland 1874, Jack is born on the coldest day ever. Due to the extreme cold he is born with a frozen heart which will not beat. Doctor Madeleine saves his life by replacing his heart with a fragile but working cuckoo clock. She then advises him of three rules to prevent his untimely death; he must never play with the hands of the clock, he must never lose his temper, and finally he must never ever fall in love.

On Jack’s tenth birthday, Madeleine repeats the three rules before taking him into town for the first time. He meets a young street-singer named Miss Acacia and becomes infatuated with her. Desperate to see her again, Jack sets out on a love quest like Don Quixote, that will take him to Scotland, Paris and finally Andalusia.

“Celestial camel” (2015)

12 years old Bayir was born in a destitute family of sheperds. When his father sells their baby camel Altynka, his mother, Mara, escapes to be find her calf. Her disappearance is a potential disaster for the family so eldest son, Bayir, takes off to retrieve her. What follows is part road movie, part coming-of-age as Bayr ventures across the Kalmyk steppe.

A poetic and magical story taking place in a unique world.

The “Magical child” festival is supported by Eesti Kultuurkapital.