TOULOUSE
A little girl with white hair already? It’s easy to understand Lucy, who frequently hears aeroplanes roaring overhead from her home on a small island in the Isles of Scilly, off the south coast of England. Whilst Europe is in turmoil, ravaged by the First World War, Lucy finds herself trapped in her own bedroom. For ever since an unfortunate accident – the details of which nobody knows or is willing to tell her – Lucy has been having visions: sometimes a string quartet appears on the beach, sometimes a German soldier who is a magician, and above all Milly, a little girl with a gift for horses and the piano, who is to become Lucy’s best friend (imaginary, but a friend all the same!).
But in the tiny village on a tiny island, word gets round, and in 1915, a little girl who talks to the wind is the subject of gossip. Her father, worried about his family’s reputation, forbids her from going to school, from spending time with other children – in short, from living like a normal girl her age! But it takes more than that to discourage Lucy and her inseparable Milly, who have more than one trick up their sleeves: they’ll sneak out and discover a mysterious trunk in the family home, which holds a bewildering secret…
Rich in both visuals and themes, the film takes us by the hand – just as Milly takes Lucy’s – with comforting warmth, and draws us into a delicate and magnificent adventure. As the story unfolds, a wonderfully crafted and unexpected dénouement quietly takes shape, leaving us utterly spellbound in a way that’s all too rare: you simply must come and experience it for yourself!
