The Dandelions

The Dandelions (Du vent dans mes mollets, 2012) is a French family comedy from director Carine Tardieu, ready to watch online on iFILM. Nine-year-old Rachel is suffocating under a loving but deeply anxious mother who shields her from every imaginable danger.

School changes that. Rachel falls in with Valérie, a fearless classmate who breaks rules without a second thought and tips the careful little world upside down. Told from a child's eye, the film catches 1980s childhood in close-up: first secrets, fallings-out, small discoveries, and grown-ups who don't have it all figured out either. The cast includes Agnès Jaoui, Denis Podalydès, Isabelle Carré and Isabella Rossellini.

Tardieu makes something warm and faintly melancholy about the kind of friendship that comes around once. It's a good pick for anyone who likes French coming-of-age stories without the sugar. Stream The Dandelions (2012) online on iFILM.