Le pupille

Written and directed by Alice Rohrwacher, shot in 16mm with Alfonso Cuarón as producer, with the support of Disney Studios and a Cannes Film Festival premiere, The Pupils’ pedigree largely exceeds what a simple short film can show. Like almost everything the filmmaker has shot, especially The Wonders and Happy as Lazzaro, it is a fable about the most pure and innocent desires. But it’s also a tale about freedom understood as a desire as well as an emotional explosion. And it is also a staging of the childhood fantasies of a group of orphaned girls a new Christmas finds confined in a boarding school, alone in mutual company. Set during the 1940s and overflowing with a vigorous Christmas spirit, the short by Rohrwacher is also a vital tribute to the cinema from Hollywood’s classical period, and honors the Disney tradition.