Iron Boy – Screening

The title may evoke the MCU, but the protagonist is no Tony Stark. The son of farmers suffering economic hardship in 1980s France, 11-year-old Christophe is a sensitive soul, more interested in playing the church organ than in going out into the fields. Uneasy in his macho milieu, he becomes a misfit twice over when he has to start wearing an orthopedic brace. The device is supposed to straighten him out – and perhaps, symbolically, to set him on the “right path”. But it only makes him feel even more different, and he is keenly aware of this as he grows up, develops a crush on a girl, and tries to find his own way in life.

Iron Boy is a departure for French director Louis Clichy, a one-time Pixar artist and director of two popular Asterix movies. The elaborate CG of those productions gives way to a spare, elegant 2D style developed around watercolor and Chinese ink brush, which has more in common with his early shorts than his studio work.

Moving away from four-quadrant entertainment, here he tells a story of deceptive simplicity and deep emotion, rooted in autobiography and a sense of place yet accessible to all. Which is why it has made such a splash, winning the Special Jury Prize in Cannes’s Un Certain Regard section and three awards at Annecy. Funny, moving and often surprising, it is one of the most exquisite coming-of-age films of recent years.