Boy & the World

A small boy in the countryside sets off after the father who left for city work. Alê Abreu tells that simple line in crayon, collage, newspaper clippings and pencil scribble, so the image changes with the boy's comprehension: the country is soft and coloured, the factory and the port are grey and sharp. The dialogue is built to be unintelligible, with Portuguese spoken backwards, which leaves the film belonging to no language at all. What it actually describes is not one child's loss but an economic chain running from the cotton field to the textile plant to the container ship. It won the top prize at Annecy and went on to an Oscar nomination. Who it is for: viewers who like wordless storytelling and hand-drawn animation. Who it is not for: anyone who wants a clear plot and explanation, since everything here is carried by the image.