L’Avion

On Christmas Eve, eight year old Charly anxiously awaits his father, Pierre, who has promised him a bike. Pierre, an army pilot and aerospace engineer, returns bearing not a bike but a model plane he has made himself. Although he assures his son that it is a more special present, Charly cannot hide his disappointment. Several days later the boy comes home to find his mother in tears; Pierre has died in a plane crash. Unable to comprehend the reality of the situation, Charly takes refuge in the model plane, which has suddenly come to life…

Cédric Kahn displays his incredible versatility in this cinematic fairy-tale based on the comic book by Denis Lapière and Magda Seron. Following brooding psychological thrillers which explored the worlds of sexuality (L’Ennui 1998), a serial killer (Roberto Succo 2001), and a marriage in breakdown (Feux Rouges 2004), Kahn turns his hand to the innocence of childhood. L’Avion beautifully visualises the imaginary space and time of a child, who is able to transcend the confines of the adult world in the quest to be reunited with his father. Kahn mixes his skill for psychological observation with a cinematic charm that recalls E.T. in a film that consistently hits the right note and cannot fail to pull at the viewer’s heart-strings.