On the Sly

Once upon a time, not long ago, there was an ordinary little girl named Cathy. She was six and lived with her parents in Paris. Every Friday afternoon Cathy was strapped into the back seat of the car for the boring ride to their weekend house in the country. Neither parent paid any attention to Cathy, so she thought she might be invisible. She decided to find out. One Sunday, when the car was packed to go back to the city, she slammed the car door and her parents drove off without her. Cathy happily ran away, to live in the woods and make her own adventures. Resting entirely on Cathy's interior observations, ON THE SLY takes us along as she crawls into a doghouse, buries a seed, builds a shelter, cares for a fish, and evades search parties of grownups who are finally paying attention. The director, who's also the actress's dad, shows the wonders of the forest from a kid's-eye view, capturing the magical nature of her journey. (In French with subtitles) –B.B.