The Little Gangster

Rik and his father Paul are the two people the neighbourhood kids pick on. Rik wishes his father were tougher. After a mafia film on television he starts imagining what it would be like: if he were the son of a mob boss, everybody would show him respect. So when his father gets promoted and they move to a new town, Rik tells exactly that story at his new school, and nobody questions it. Arne Toonen adapted it from a children's book, and it is about how a lie grows and then takes possession of the person telling it. It takes bullying seriously without looking for the answer in being tougher. As a children's film it moves fast and is genuinely funny, and the question underneath is how a father looks through his son's eyes.