The director created this film based on her grandmother's escape from Odessa with her six siblings after the pogrom of 1905, which was a result of the upheaval after Russia's defeat against Japan. Odessa is in Ukraine and under siege as I write this, so the film can be read as an uncanny premonition of things to come. But the siblings escaping the destruction of their home in an unnamed country could be from Africa or South America as well. They move through fairy tale episodes between fantasy and nightmare, in an expressionist style defined by the technique of filming oil paintings on glass. This creates edgy movements and could have been evened out better with a Disney budget, but this is not a Disney film. It's a masterpiece of memory through abstraction and provides parents who are honest enough with the opportunity to confront their children - from, say, age 12, not younger - with the cruelties and hopes of our torn-apart world.
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