Anina

Alfredo Soderguit's 2013 Uruguayan animation follows ten-year-old Anina Yatay Salas, whose name is made of three palindromes. That name is a constant source of teasing at school; after a fight in the playground, Anina and her rival are given a mysterious punishment in a sealed envelope whose contents they do not know. The film uses that uncertainty to describe the disproportionate fear inside a child's head. Soderguit is a children's book illustrator, which sets the style of the animation: soft lines, watercolour texture and plain colour. Because animation production in Uruguay is very limited, the film was considered a first for the country. What it does best is refuse to explain a child's world through an adult's eyes. Who it's for: families who like Latin American animation and films told from a child's perspective. Who it's not for: anyone expecting high-tempo animation, or bothered by a plot that stays small in scale.