Let me start this one as I occasionally do my reviews with the first user comment I read on the IMDb. It really irks me when I read reviews of movies like this that come to the conclusion, “adults don’t understand children and never will …” It irks me because, to me, that’s the whole point of movies like this … if you watch them, if you try, then maybe you’ll remember!

Anyway – this movie turned out very different from what I expected from the title. There are a lot of movies where a child escapes reality through their imagination, the two most memorable that come to mind being Pan’s Labyrinth and Spirit of the Beehive. I never imagined this movie would sit alongside those two so well as it does because, if anything, this one goes even more into the political reality of the girl in question – one, as a matter of fact, that I knew very little about, the Australian communist party of the 1950s, which perhaps explains why I had no trouble understanding the kids’ side of the story more lol.

The movie begins as Celia’s grandmother dies and on the first night without her Celia spies a monstrous hand at her window. Her birthday follows shortly and she gets a bike from her parents rather than the rabbit her grandmother had promised her – her father objecting as rabbits are pests. Celia befriends neighbouring children but it fast emerges their parents are communists. Her father ultimately buys her the rabbit if Celia promises never to play with those kids again. Of course, she takes the rabbit but continues to see her friends.

This is where it all becomes a little Lord of the Flies-ish – the more politically correct children throwing stones at the communists and their sympathiser Celia, even bringing the rabbit into it at one stage. All the while, the Aussie government threatens to cull even pet rabbits in their efforts to control the spread of what they call pests. Eventually, the order comes through, Celia’s rabbit is taken from her.

Yet for all this nastiness, what’s most amazing and what will bring me back to this movie is the number of times its authenticity made me smile. There are truly warm connections between the characters here – from the neighbouring kids’ mother to the fleeting appearances of Celia’s grandmother, and even the strict father shows some true affection at a scene by the sea with her. It always feels horribly obvious to speak of how wonderful the children’s performances are in movies like this but it needs to be said, there’s not a single stilted line delivery or anything of the sort here, not even on the sidelines. The movie feels almost overwhelmingly natural. The ending – or, at least, a moment close to the end – really crushed me. Be warned, if you’re an animal-lover, or even if you just get emotional over the pain of childhood, this will really get you. But it’s well worth the investment.

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