Showing as part of French Film Festival 2010,

Mona Achache/ France/ 2009/ 100 min

This gentle, touching piece of French existentialism asks the big questions about why we are here but manages to answer them free from angst. That it comes to the conclusion that it’s our inner selves that are important might seem trite but it’s the journey it takes to get there that turns this film from a pleasant piece of navel gazing into an absorbing and supremely satisfying experience.

Set in an exclusive Parisian apartment block the weight of the story is taken by two characters, Paloma (Garance le Guillermic) a bright 11 year old obsessed with videoing the bourgeois existence of her family to explain her desire to end her own life and the hedgehog of the title, Reneé (Josiane Balasko) the spiky inward looking concierge who hides her secret passion for literature from her snooty employers. Guillermic manages to perform a character balanced between anthropologist and confused child with never a false note being struck but the heart of the film belongs to Balasko who manages to convey complex emotions with a simple raise of an eyebrow or s crooked smile.

The cross cultural, cross status relationship with Mr Ozu (Togo Igawa) which brings about Reneé’s transformation is believable and touching and the audience can’t help but root for their chance at happiness at the same time as being fearful it could be snatched away by any number of trivial incidents. It is to first time director Mona Achache’s immense credit that she makes the viewer so implicit in their story that they leave the cinema genuinely shell-shocked by the powerful ending.

It’s a problem with film festivals that you can never know for certain when a film like this will come on general release however when it does do yourself a favour, stub out your gauloises, finish your café noir, put down your Sartre and treat yourself to something life affirming.