MA VIE DE COURGETTE / MY LIFE AS A ZUCCHINI

When nine-year-old Icare accidentally causes the death of his alcoholic mother, he is accompanied to the Fontaines group home by kind policeman Raymond. He at first finds it difficult to fit in, and is desperately homesick: the only reminders of his former life are an empty beer can and his mother's nickname for him, "Courgette" (Zucchini). He soon learns that the other children in the home have endured similarly traumatic circumstances. Alice's father is imprisoned for sexual abuse; new arrival Camille witnessed her parents’ murder-suicide; and Simon, group leader and bully, lost both his parents to drug overdoses. With the help of the other kids at the centre – and the gentle-hearted Raymond – Courgette begins rebuilding his life, and gradually he comes to find comfort and acceptance in his new home.

CLAUDE BARRAS

Claude Barras (born 1973) is a Swiss director. Barras studied illustration and computer graphics at École Emile Cohl in Lyon. He also studied computer graphics at ECAL (École Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne) and worked as a freelance illustrator in Geneva, where he currently resides.

Barras has directed several shorts including Stigmates (2002), Le génie de la boîte de raviolis (The Genie in a Ravioli Can) (2006), Sainte barbe (2007), Au Pays des tetes (Land of the Heads) (2009), and Chambre 69 (2012). Le génie de la boîte de raviolis received numerous awards in film festivals around the world.

My Life as a Courgette (2016) is Barras’ first full-length animated feature. It was presented at the Director's Fortnight of the Cannes Film Festival and received numerous awards at film festivals around the world. The film was selected as Switzerland's official entry for the Academy Awards Best Foreign Language Film.