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Little Hands is used with permission from Remi Allier and Salaud Morisset. Learn more at and
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Bruno's factory where he works is shutting down, and his job is in danger. Angry, desperate and in the thick of a volatile, tense negotiation, he decided to kidnap Leo, the toddler of the company director, in order to negotiate.
But the situation quickly escalates as Bruno flees into the nearby woods with the child. But the forest allows space for Bruno to grapple with what he has done and how he has complicated his situation, while also tending to the toddler's distress.
This uniquely resonant dramatic short -- directed by Remi Allier and co-written by Julien Guetta -- focuses initially on the small child, keeping the sights and sounds of the film in close range of what the toddler is experiencing. We can see and hear the angry debate and shouts in the factory, as well as the tension in the room, but while the conflict is legible to viewers -- captured as it is through obliquely framed close-ups and quick editing cuts -- the child is entirely innocent of what is happening, happily playing and exploring the world as toddlers should do.
The child's innocence remains for the rest of the film, which transitions after an agitated, tense flight into a quieter register. Masterful craftsmanship balances the subjective POVs of both Bruno and Leo, keeping the small child always in its perspective through a cloistered film grammar that emphasizes sensation over information. We feel Leo's fear and fright as Bruno runs through the woods with him, the world blurring by with speed and vehemence and captured with remarkably evocative handheld camerawork.
But as we finally grow still, we are also able to slow down into the moment with Leo as he observes the natural world around him, and eventually also his captor Bruno. Through Leo's eyes, we see Bruno grapple with what he has done, his hardened face dissolving into worry and anxiety. We also observe how Leo tenderly observes Bruno's injuries, perhaps hinting at the stakes or history he was with work. Leo's innate tenderness softens Bruno, who makes a key decision to do the right thing and face the difficult situation waiting for him back at the factory.
The winner of a French Cesar Award, "Little Hands" perhaps loses context by restricting its POV to the small child. But it gains immeasurably in observing the heated emotional dynamics underlying this labor dispute: fear of losing livelihood, anger at feeling unheard or unregarded, retaliation to fortify a sense of power, and how it can all quickly escalate into potential violence or danger.
Such storms are overwhelming and intense for children to be around, yet the adults around them seem desensitized to the impact of the words and actions hurled around them in anger. By slanting the perspective towards Leo in nearly every movement of its narrative, the film seems to ask us to remember this lost knowledge and proceed accordingly, while also remembering who will inherit the world we make.
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A desperate employee kidnaps his boss's son in order to negotiate. | Little Hands
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