MY LITTLE DEVIL

We are always honored to host one of the superior children's films produced by Rock Demers, regarded as the Walt Disney of Canada, who in the past has graced the world screens with delightful all-ages features such as “Tommy Tricker and the Stamp Traveller” (13th CIFF, 1989) and “The Flying Sneaker” (17th CIFF, 1993). Demers sets his films in multicultural environments (dialogue in expertly dubbed English), with characters who are never all good or entirely bad, and MY LITTLE DEVIL upholds this tradition of enlightened excellence. In the Indian state of Gujerat in the late 1970s, motherless little Joseph is sent to a Portuguese-founded Catholic boarding-school. Away from his village he feels out of place, his unsophisticated country ways setting him apart from the other boys. But Joseph makes two remarkable friends. One is the cook Tom Chacha (the great Indian thespian Om Puri), a friendly old man with a tendency to spin tall tales. The other one is Sandu, a siddi (black person) also attending classes, but not boarding with the other boys. When Joseph learns about Sandu's home situation, he decides to share what little he has, a decision that will shape both their lives.