La Vérité sur Alvert, le Dernier Dodo
2022 · 17m · Switzerland
Directed by Nathan Clement
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, fantasy
Tones: melancholic, tender, whimsical
A boy and his grandfather attempt to turn a hen into a dodo whose magical feathers could save the boy’s dying mother.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The setup screams whimsy-by-committee—boy, grandfather, magical bird resurrection—but the film somehow resists the saccharine trap by leaning into genuine melancholy; it's a fantasy that understands why the magic probably won't work, and that uncertainty is where it gets interesting.
Clement positions this firmly within the European fairy-tale lineage (echoes of Miyazaki's tonal restraint, the folkloric weight of Jeunet), and the film's refusal to resolve its magical premise tidily suggests a sophisticated engagement with how contemporary cinema renegotiates the contract between wonder and mortality.
The decision to keep the hen just a hen—to let the magical realism live entirely in the boy and grandfather's belief rather than visual transformation—is what makes this work; it's a film about faith that never cheats by showing us the dodo, and that restraint on a modest budget becomes the whole emotional spine.