My Life as a Courgette PG cert, 66 min

This Oscar-nominated stop-motion animation, which arrives in British cinemas three months after its valiant clash with

Zootropolis, Moana et al at February’s Academy Awards, should be approached with caution by the quivery of lip and delicate of tear duct.

Swiss filmmaker Claude Barras’s slim but nimble 66-minute debut feature, focuses on nine-year-old Icare, whose mother calls him Courgette for reasons that aren’t made clear, but don’t seem to be wholly affectionate. After a tragic incident that nonetheless feels bleakly for the best, Courgette is taken to a rural orphanage.

Courgette’s half-dozen or so dorm-mates each has their own sad story to tell. It’s to the credit of both Barras and his collaborator, Céline Sciamma, that none of the children feels like a standard classroom type. Every child here seems like a real human being.

The children’s home is where freedom resides, while the world outside is a source of threat. Courgette and his fellow orphans have come to think of love as perhaps unavailable, and the film’s beauty lies in watching that understanding slowly shift.

Heartbreaking as it frequently is – though it’s funny just as often – the toughest details are always delicately expressed. R C