Strings

Cuerdas (2013) runs ten minutes. Not a typo, and worth saying first so you do not settle in for a feature. It is a Spanish animated short that won the Goya, and it takes place at a boarding school. A girl named María works out how to play with a new classmate who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair. Everyone else is waiting to be told how to behave around him. She just invents a game using rope and imagination. One piece of context makes the film land differently: director Pedro Solís built it out of his own children, a daughter and a son with cerebral palsy. Knowing that while you watch is not a spoiler, it is the film. The animation is plain, the score is sparse, there is almost no dialogue. It builds gently and then, in the last sixty seconds, does something it never warned you about. Good for: short film viewers, animation fans, and anyone looking for something to watch with a child that is not hollow. It fits in a single sitting or a classroom period. Be aware the ending is sad. If you are watching with a young child, be ready to talk afterwards.