Ponette

Four-year-old Ponette survives a car crash that kills her mother, leaving her with a broken arm. Her father, unable to cope with the child's grief, places her in the care of her aunt and cousins in the countryside. Raised among adults who explain death through religious faith, and taunted by some of the children around her, Ponette keeps expecting her mother to return. Her attempts to make sense of the loss shape the film.

Jacques Doillon wrote and directed this French drama, which followed The 15 Year Old Girl in his filmography and came before Third Grade. Victoire Thivisol plays Ponette, with Matiaz Bureau Caton, Delphine Schiltz, Léopoldine Serre and Luckie Royer among the child cast. Alain Sarde produced.

The film was released on 25 September 1996 and runs 97 minutes. Its worldwide box office was about 1 million dollars, a modest return for a French production. Audience ratings agree closely: 7.5 out of 10 on IMDb from around 5,000 votes, and 7.4 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller sample of 59. A critics' rating of 8.4 out of 10 from 24 reviews places the film noticeably higher with reviewers than with general viewers.