The Hedgehog

Overview

A part of every fully grown mortal can relate to the existential musings of precocious 11-year-old Paloma (Garance Le Guillermic). We've all felt at times that we are lolling about life in a fishbowl and banging "like flies against the glass". As Paloma, a budding young filmmaker, attempts to expose the absurdity of life through her dad's old Hi8 video camera, we are invited to view the world through her bespectacled eyes and question what it is that we truly value in this strange existence.

"Freely inspired" by the best-selling novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog by French author and former philosophy teacher Muriel Barbery, The Hedgehog (Le Herisson) delicately interlaces the stories of three endearingly idiosyncratic characters whose lives are vastly different but who share the same elegance of spirit and curiosity for life. Renee Michel (Josiane Balasko) is the stout, surly concierge at an opulent apartment building in Paris who goes about her daily doings as if she were invisible to all but the curious young Paloma, who lives upstairs. As the youngest daughter of a wealthy, workaholic father and a prescription-drug-dependent mother, the freakishly clever and insightful girl feels isolated and misunderstood by those around her.

On opposite ends of the socioeconomic scale, Renee and Paloma both dwell on the fringes of society, preferring to quietly observe life from a place of relative obscurity. It isn't until Kakuro Ozu (Togo Igawa), an intelligent and refined Japanese businessman, moves into the building and the three form a unique bond that we see the girl and the woman emerge from hiding and begin to embrace life.

Borrowing from fairytale motifs and injecting them with her unique, contemporary vision, director Mona Achache adapts Barbery's novel with intelligence and finesse. Her kooky characters are thoroughly realised and artfully portrayed with sincerity and warmth by an accomplished cast. The kinship between all three leads is genuine and believable, and each delivers a strong performance — especially young Garance, who is delightful as the eccentric Paloma.

The Hegdehog is an intimate and uniquely told parable about the importance of scratching the rough surface of life for the chance of discovering the hidden gems beneath. Because sometimes life, like Renee the proverbial 'hedgehog', conceals a sophisticated elegance beneath a prickly veneer.