What are good parents in this world? Are they able to manage their own lives and take care of their children's lives, and know how to love, tolerate, understand, support and encourage them in their daily lives? Our protagonist Zucchini is just nine years old. What a coincidence, he has not met such good parents.

His father has passed away, and his mother has been alcoholic and neglectful. He can only collect the kite with his father's image in the attic, as well as the beer cans left by his mother's drinking. One day, he unintentionally angered his drunken mother, who climbed the stairs to teach him a lesson. In fear, he slammed the lid to the attic. His mother lost her balance and rolled down the stairs. .

Zucchini was sent to the orphanage.

This is the opening of the stop-motion animation "The Life of a Zucchini" co-produced by France and Switzerland. It shows another kind of childhood.

The orphanage is very small, with a director, two people in charge who are in love, a teacher who teaches classes, six children including Zucchini, a total of ten people. The dean introduced Zucchini to everyone, and the teacher started class. When the adults were gone and only the children were left, Simon, the boss of the orphanage, took action.

This little boy caused trouble for Zucchini from the beginning. He first played pranks in class, then nicknamed him "Potato" during dinner, and then forced Zucchini to tell him why he came here. . Poor Zucchini, who had just lost her mother, was so angry that she stopped eating dinner and went back to her little bed to pretend to sleep. As a result, even if he pretended, Simon would still shine a flashlight on him at night. After finally falling asleep, Zucchini woke up and found that the kite he had thought of as his father's image had been unceremoniously taken and flown by Simon.

Zucchini rushed down in anger, struggled with Simon, and finally defeated Simon.

Just like all enemies who do not know each other without fighting, the two children made excuses to escape the punishment of the adults. Instead, they became friends later and were able to sit quietly under the tree and chat.

Simon, the boss of the welfare home, then introduced the reasons why several other children came to Zucchini: Simon’s own parents were taking drugs, the mother of the African child Libya was deported, and the mother of the round-faced boy Zaozi Ahmed, a mentally ill man with a long face, was robbed by his father in order to buy him Nike shoes and was sent to jail. Alice, a little girl who always covered half of her face with her hair, was raped by her biological father and did it every night. Nightmare.

Zucchini listened silently, and finally said, I may have killed my mother, but I didn't mean to.

Boss Simon turned to look at him and said calmly, we are all the same, no one loves us.

Children know everything, they just don’t know how to talk.

Three

After becoming friendly with Simon, Zucchini’s life in the orphanage became smoother.

The police officer who sent him to the orphanage came to visit him. Zucchini showed the officer his drawing of life in the orphanage, and the officer was very happy. Zucchini looked unhappy and said, you came to visit me because this is your job. The police officer looked at him in surprise, then said seriously, no, I came to visit you because I like you.

Zucchini looked at him, wondering whether he should believe it or not.

At this moment, a car stopped at the courtyard gate. The car door opened and a little girl sat inside. Zucchini glanced at her and felt as if he was in love.

The new girl is called Camille. She is a straightforward girl. When Simon, the boss of the orphanage, used his boss-like attitude to interrogate the newcomers again, Camille would smile and fight back. She said, I am here because my mother makes me dress up as a dinosaur to go to school every day. Amid everyone's laughter, Simon was so angry that he walked away without looking back. Therefore, Simon is still just a child, he is just better at pretending to be strong than other children.

At night, Zucchini couldn't sleep. Simon asked, do you want to know why Camille came here? Zucchini nodded. Simon was indeed the boss of the orphanage. He took Zucchini into the dean's office in a matter of minutes and opened Camille's file.

Her father suspected that her mother was cheating on her, so he started killing her mother and then shot himself. Camille, on the other hand, witnessed all this with his own eyes.

Before watching this movie, people who live in a family that is not perfect but at least normal would probably not have imagined that there are so many parents in the world who cannot even take care of themselves, let alone , there is such a group of children who survive well no matter what they face.

Children from the orphanage can understand each other better, even though they are both from the same place. Zucchini discovered Camille's beauty despite her tragic life experience. He said that it was no wonder she had that strong look on her face.

Four

Later, the orphanage took them to the mountains to see the snow. The children had a lot of fun building snowmen, skiing, and having snowball fights. While they were having fun, a little boy next to him fell down. His mother helped him up with a gentle smile, patted the snow on his body, and touched his head.

The children in the orphanage saw it and looked over.

The narrative of this movie is quite restrained. The life experience of each child is so tragic, but no one cried. In the shots given to them, they are usually either silent or amusing each other. It is difficult to see them. sad. Only here, during the ordinary action of a mother lifting up her child, the film uses a four-second advance shot of the children in the orphanage. The audience can clearly feel that they are watching the other children almost greedily. The children are enjoying maternal love, and everyone, whether the children themselves or the audience, knows that they will never have one, so they can only watch.

The background was quiet, but the sound of heartbreak was heard.

What is ordinary in the eyes of some people is an unattainable dream in the eyes of others.

At night, Zucchini and Camille couldn't sleep, so they went out to chat.

Zucchini gave Camille a birthday gift and confessed that she knew Camille’s life experience. Camille sighed and spread out on the snow and said, "So you know everything?" After the accident, I was sent to my aunt's house. She didn't like me, so I came here. The orphanage was actually quite good.

Zucchini nodded, also lay down, and after a while he was quiet and said, I often think about standing with my mother when I grow up, but fortunately, I know that this is impossible. When the moon is bright and the children are so young, they will not cry or complain. They will just lie in the snow, holding hands, thanking God for sending each other.

With company, you are not so lonely, and it seems that you can still hold on.

Five

Later in the story, Camille, with the help of Simon, revealed the truth to the judge. Her aunt only wanted alimony and would not really like her at all. The kind-hearted police officer adopted Zucchini and Camille, the police officer's own children. In the police officer's words, you don't know why, the children just leave you. Under the leadership of the boss Simon, the children in the orphanage accepted the fact that Zucchini and Camille left. After all, no matter how good the orphanage is with everyone, it is not as good as having a home.

At the end of the story, the couple of teachers who were in love got married and had a child. The children gathered around the female teacher and looked at the baby and asked the teacher, will you love him forever? The female teacher smiled and replied, of course. The children then asked all kinds of questions:

In these questions, the audience clearly heard that the children in the orphanage were asking their parents, I have such and such shortcomings, that’s why you don’t love me. Don’t you want me too?

They just want to be loved. There is nothing wrong with this.