La jeune fille sans mains (2016)

	Also Known As: The girl without hands, Das Mädchen ohne Hände
	Year of first release: 2016
	Director: Sébastien Laudenbach
	Actors: -
	Country: F
	Genre: Animation, Drama, Melodrama
	Conditions of visioning: 02.10.2016, ArteKinoFestival, Streaming, French version
Synopsis: A poor miller decides to sell one side of his mill to the devil in exchange of gold. Including apple tree and daughter. He is forced to cut her hands to please the devil. Her tears and purity protect her and she flees. She meets the spirit of a river who helps her to encounter a prince.
Review: It is the first movie of a set of movies that I watch in the frame of the ArteKinoFestival. During about 10 days, the festival gathers online viewers who can also vote for the best movie of the festival. I find the initiative great and original. The story is inspired by a Brother Grimm's tale. At the beginning it looks like a pact with the devil. But actually it does not focus at all on the contractors (father and devil) but on the victim (daughter) and how she struggles for life with love, care and kindness. This is kind of naive, but no more than Lars von Trier melodramas (Breaking the waves, Dancer in the dark). There are here also moments of beauty and poetry.  The animation style seems a bit weird as filling colours and contours are not moving necessarily together, but it has an effect of detachment enhancing the moments of poetry. The dialogues are told quite well matching the atmosphere of the scene.  Sébastien Laudenbach is a good story-teller.
Rating: 6 /10