The Hedgehog

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The Hedgehog (Le Hérisson) is a French film directed by Mona Achache, loosely based on the novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery. Made in 2008, the film was released in theatres in 2009.

Paloma is an 11-year-old girl quietly and unhappily living in a luxurious Paris apartment with her family. She is intelligent and observant and, sensing disappointment and despair in adulthood, decides to end her life on her 12th birthday, which is 165 days away from when the story begins. Her father's old camera in hand, she records telling moments in the lives of the inadequate humans around her: her antidepressant-dependent mother, her moody sister, and petulant dinner guests. As Paloma prepares to finish her remaining days, Mrs. Michel, the gruff-looking, reclusive concierge, manages the building where Paloma and her family live. She hides her passion for literature from her bourgeois employers, but is found out by the new resident Mr. Ozu, widowed Japanese, as a beautiful bibliophile in elegant disguise. A fiercely tender attraction grows between the three like-minded individuals, showing Paloma a more lovely side of life than she originally thought possible and forcing her to reconsider her plan of suicide.

The film received positive reviews. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 88% of 67 critics gave the film a positive review, for an average rating of 7/10.^[3]

• Official site (Australia)
• NeoClassics Films
• The Hedgehog at IMDb

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