On The Sly review

The value of small things is tenderly endorsed in this miniaturist French cousin of Alice In Wonderland and Moonrise Kingdom .

Olivier Ringer directs his daughter Wynona as Cathy, a six-year-old so convinced her parents think she’s invisible that she flees to the woods while on holiday.

As she nurtures seeds, hedgehogs, ladybirds and fish – nature’s tiny, magical treasures – Olivier teases an unselfconscious performance from Wynona and honours his heroine’s pint-sized perspective.

Her dreamy inner monologue dominates this slight but guileless charmer: sweetly, it practises the respect for the seeds we plant that it so gently preaches.