Dir: Julie Gavras Italy/France 2007 99 mins Club

Life is sweet for nine-year-old Anna (Nina Kervel). Living a very bourgeois life in turn-of-the-1970s France, she's immaculate, fiercely intelligent and a bit of a snob - we first encounter her instructing a table of kids on how to eat fruit with a knife and fork. So when her parents, Spanish lawyer Fernando (Stefano Accorsi) and French journalist Marie (Julie Depardieu) decide that selling up, scaling down and making friends with lots of bearded radical socialists is the way forward, their little dyed-in-the-wool conservative digs her heels in.

Director Julie Gavras (daughter of 70s political filmmaker Costa-Gavras) has taken Domitilla Calamai's novel and skilfully grafted an analysis of early 1970s politics (interestingly also weaving in a strand about abortion still being illegal at this time) onto a coming-of-age tale, integrating political tumult into a personal tale. What makes this film a real gem is Kervel's brilliant performance, personifying this stage of growing up with a perfect balance of bratishness, bright intellect, humour and innocence. She's a revelation.