In this little gem of a film, everything seems big to our tiny 6 year old protagonist Amalka while a lot seems out of frame to the viewers. That is because director Beata Parkanová invites us to look at the world through the eyes of a child. Amalka is a sweet and playful little girl with no siblings so she pays special attention to Mr. Cat, an outdoor-indoor black and white feline who offers the little child some form of escape and company while the adults in the room – her parents and maternal grandparents – shut her out from reality.  It is clear from the very first scene that something is quite not right in the family household. Her parents are arguing and the tension between the parents suggests a separation is imminent. In order to protect Amalka, her grandparents decide to reassure their granddaughter by reintroducing normalcy to her life: a home cooked meal, a walk by the lake, a smile in front of her favorite TV show. But despite being 6 years old, Amalka is quite perceptive and internalizes the mood surrounding her. While the grandfather does his best to protect his beloved Amalka with tiny gestures of tenderness, the grandmother cannot  help expressing tiny outbursts of bitterness towards her daughter.The subtle tension simmering throughout the film comes to the surface in the final act as we learn that Amalka’s mother is intending to leave the small picturesque village in order to pursue her dream to become an artist in Prague. But despite this, Parkanová doesn’t lay blame, inviting us to have empathy for everyone involved, to find the tiny lights inside ourselves to understand different perspectives via the tiny eyes of our tiny protagonist. Mouwafak Chourbagui