Rudyard Kipling’s tale of how the elephant got its trunk has always delighted with its playful use of language. Never has there been a more satisfying rendering of this “Just So” story, which explains what the world was like “in the beginning of years when the world was new and all…”. Illustrated by Tim Raglin.
Category: Family
The life of a first grader is difficult: he has to attend school, do homework and flee from his uncle who always wants to wrestle with him. It’s a good thing his imagination is always ready to help out and he can always count on his little girlfriend, Zizi. The playfulness of French New Wave had a major influence on the first full-length feature film of the two young directors Ferenc Kardos and János Rózsa. The film is full of classical burlesque gags and borrows freely from the effects toolbox so as to make all the more palpable the imagination of a child wondering at the world around him.
Combining documentary authenticity with subtle fantasy, Danish directors Stefan Fjeldmark and Karsten Kiilerich explore children’s attitudes and vague conceptions about death.
Set in 1955, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes is the true story of Sadako Sasaki, a young Japanese girl, on the threshold of adolescence, who developed leukemia from radiation caused by the bombing of Hiroshima. While hospitalized, her closest friend reminded her of the Japanese legend that if she folded a thousand paper cranes, the gods might grant her wish to be well again. With hope and determination, Sadako began folding.
A boy lives with his alcoholic grandfather and wants to get rid of his vice. One day he sees in the wax museum that a couple of drunks are frightened by the figure of Dracula and he spreads word in his neighborhood that Dracula is prowling around. Then he disguises himself as the mythical character to scare his grandfather.
In the mad morning rush, five-year-old Junior is constantly underfoot, then for a little nothing his father flies into a temper and as punishment Junior is sent to the bathroom for a few minutes. During this period of solitary confinement the boy’s imagination is let loose and a whole story begins to take shape in his mind in which finally he forgives the adults who are angry at him for no reason whatsoever. György Palásthy’s classical family movie looks as though it was made directly for the retro-wave of the future: from the bagged milk to the bubbling coffee-maker, everything is included that was part of everyday life from decades earlier while it takes us on a colourful trip back in time through the streets of seventies Budapest.
Gavin, a farm boy from a small town, has reached a turning point in his life. Follow in the footsteps of his older brother, as a professional baseball player, or continue on his parents’ farm where his help is essential. His little brother Ben, who is crippled, idealizes him and gives him morale in the face of the pressures of the farm and college. One fine day during practice he is given a chance to hit and he hits the ball out of the field…
14-year-old Jurek spends his summer holidays in his Silesian hometown of Borzechów. The boy gets into a conflict with a group of peers bullying their weaker colleagues. He is also shaken by the mysterious disappearance of his mother, who has allegedly gone away to a sanatorium. Unexpectedly, he falls in love with Elżbieta, a girl from Warsaw. The new experiences accelerate his coming of age and turn him into a responsible, courageous man. The end of summer holidays becomes a symbolic end of his childhood.