Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #162: My Life as a Zucchini (2016).

In this 2016 Best Animated Feature Oscar nominee, young Icare (who prefers to be called "Courgette" aka "Zucchini") lives with his mother whose abandonment by his father has made her hit the bottle big time. After Zucchini then accidentally, and fatally, makes her fall down the stairs one day, he consults local cop Raymond (Michel Vuillermoz; Nick Offerman in the English dubbed version) who then takes him to an orphanage. There, Zucchini discovers a hive of bullying, teenage perversion and socio-economic hierarchy. Until he meets the sweet and beguiling Camille.

This French-Swiss adaptation of Gilles Paris' novel My Life as a Courgette (which is also the film's title in the French-speaking world) did initially strike me as being far more visually compelling and fresh than narratively, but while its plot doesn't cover any really new territory, the sincere understanding and allegiance with which it's told shines adequately through. Director Claude Barras and his co-screenwriters Celine Sciamma, Germano Zullo and Morgan Navarro adapt this story, whose source material I haven't read, with such deep heart and wry, subversive wit that it actually pulls off fooling you into thinking this is a children's story when really it becomes more of an adult-oriented story about childhood.

But naturally, the real meat in this sandwich is the flawless animation. Like a daring blend of claymation and stop-motion animation, Barras and his team bring this tale's world and characters to life with unfailing clarity and attention to detail, from the buildings and vehicles right down to how the characters play with their hair. I'd seriously compare it, at least visually, to the works of Aardman Animations, Tim Burton in animation mode, and even the films of Ray Harryhausen. This is one very delicious zucchini - or courgette - indeed.