PODWÓRKA

As is often the case with Sharon Lockhart, this film is about experiencing a setting. Here, it involves the courtyards of Łódź in Poland. Once again, the protagonists are children. In six cameos shot in six di erent courtyards, Lockhart invites us to observe the children attentively as they appropriate the spaces to improvise their games there, tirelessly crossing and re-crossing a puddle on a tricycle, scaling a wall to make a lookout or turning a courtyard into a football pitch. Focusing on these spaces cut o from the city and devoid of recreational facilities with predetermined uses, this is a beautiful tribute to childhood inventiveness and its plundering spirit. (N.F.)