Acclaimed Brazilian writer-director Alê Abreu, director of Oscar-nominated The Boy and the World (NZIFF 2013), has created a dazzling animated love letter for all-ages, encouraging an awareness of social and ecological issues, and a taste for art, while delivering a film of enormous artistic ambition and visual complexity.  

Alê’s unique animated world presents a mythical prism of kaleidoscopic colour – a dense enchanted impressionist forest, created through painterly tropical tones. It’s breathtaking. Feisty and smart, Claé and Bruó, enemy agents from the Kingdoms of the Sun and the Moon, live in a world of these intricate backgrounds, all painted by hand. Initially combative and competitive, these plucky explorers reluctantly band together in a bid to save their precious woodland, and the Perlimps, from the Giants surrounding the forest. 

Nine years in the making, Perlimps has landed here and now to offer a timely allegorical perspective on the state of our world, particularly the climate crisis and armed conflicts – providing an ideal way for kids to unpack these big issues. What at first appears to be a straightforward narrative adventure story, perfect for even the smallest of audience members, suddenly offers up layers of meaning and a profound philosophical statement about guardianship, the unsurmountable walls between warring ideologies, and growing up and finding your voice.