My Life as a Courgette (Film)

My Life as a Courgette (The Life of Courgette) focuses on the life of nine-year-old Icare (nicknamed Courgette), who is placed in a children’s care home following his mother’s death. Through Courgette’s relationships with other children in this new environment and their individual past traumas, the film explores themes of trust, solidarity, and belonging. The narrative is shaped from a child’s perspective, emphasizing not the dramatic events themselves but their reflections within the child’s world.

^{Child characters featured in the film (}beyazperde⁾

The film is adapted from a novel by Gilles Paris intended for adult readers. The adaptation process aimed to make the content suitable for child and adolescent audiences. Rather than directly depicting traumatic elements such as death, abandonment, and abuse, the film favors implicit or symbolic storytelling. For instance, the scene depicting the mother’s death in the novel is not shown explicitly in the film; instead, it is conveyed through sound and off-screen elements. These choices were shaped by both pedagogical objectives and the boundaries of censorship.

The film was produced using stop-motion animation. Characters were designed as puppets equipped with mechanical parts. Each character’s face features interchangeable eyelids and magnetic mouth pieces. The production process lasted approximately seven years, from 2007 to 2013, during which time puppet construction, set designs, and costume concepts were developed. Numerous drawings, script drafts, storyboards, and production objects were created during this period; a significant portion of this material has been archived by the Cinémathèque suisse.

^{A scene reflecting the production phase, showing the preparation of stop-motion puppets (generated by artificial intelligence.)}

The main character of the film is Courgette. Other child characters (Camille, Simon, Ahmed, Alice, Jujube, Béatrice) are individuals affected by various social or familial traumas. Throughout the film, their psychological responses—such as repetitive behaviors or attachment to specific objects—are linked to their past traumas. The personal objects used by the children (for example, the paper airplane, MP3 player, and bandage) carry symbolic functions. These objects evolve in meaning and function over the course of the film, reflecting the children’s transformation.

^{Courgette’s personal object, the paper airplane (}beyazperde⁾

The production constructs its narrative through visual simplicity and the language of the child characters. Although the film addresses themes such as neglect, death, and psychological trauma and is pedagogically oriented toward children, it also resonates with adult viewers. While the language is simplified, the depth of the narrative engages with social issues. In this context, the film can also be regarded as an educational work encompassing themes such as family, care, poverty, and children’s rights.

Since 2016, the film’s production materials have been exhibited in museums and academic settings. The Musée de la Miniature et du Cinéma in Lyon and the Musée de Carouge in Carouge have organized exhibitions on the film’s production process. Following these exhibitions, various physical production artifacts—including puppets, set pieces, and script copies—were donated to the Cinémathèque suisse archive. This archive serves as a resource for future scholarly work on the film.

The film has been supported by pedagogical kits developed by French teachers for classroom use. The prepared teacher and student materials aim to foster in children skills such as social awareness, empathy, emotional expression, and solidarity. These resources include character analyses, vocabulary exercises, suggestions for dramatization, and discussion questions.