Once upon a time, there was a little Serbian girl who was barely five years old and the saddest creature ever seen. Lost in the forest, she clasped a little red case to her chest, a symbol of the happiness stolen from her by an ethnic war.
Her poor mother was no longer of this world, and her father had been left for dead after being wounded during the nationalist conflicts that had ravaged their land.
The more the little girl walked, the more she became lost and entered ever deeper into the forest. Then, she suddenly noticed some thick smoke wafting up ahead. She walked in its direction, in the hope of finding help. Thus Irina crossed paths with a little, golden-haired boy called Malik, along with his family with whom she found refuge.
This story could have been a fairytale, if real men weren’t hiding behind the scenes, incapable of reacting or of helping each other in the face of so much suffering, blinded by political and religious indoctrination. But the children’s view of the world opens the doors to more humane feelings, thus allowing the adults to come together, despite cultural divides.
The encounter between Malik and Irina allows us to visit a page of history once again, through the innocent gaze of childhood, and thus it allows us to see that cultural harmony is but child’s play!
Little Red Riding Hood? Hansel and Gretel? Little Tom Thumb? The film is a delectable mix of memories of childhood tales and adventures and the cruel reality of the real world, with its wars and incoherencies.