Chicken for Linda (Linda veut du poulet!)

Wednesday 6 August at 7.30pm

Sébastien Laudenbach & Chiara Malta | France/Italy | 2023 | HD | PG coarse language

In co-operation with the Institut Francais and the Embassy of France.

An innocent request leads to a wild chase as a doting mother tries to gather the ingredients for her daughter’s favourite meal in this charming French animation.

“In the animated French feature Chicken for Linda!, directed by Chiara Malta and Sébastien Laudenbach, a mother accuses her young daughter of stealing a ring of great and mournful value. When the mother, Paulette (voiced by Clotilde Hesme), discovers her error, she promises to do whatever Linda (Mélinée Leclerc) wishes by way of apology. Linda was an infant when her father died, so she asks her culinarily challenged mother to cook her father’s go-to dish: chicken and peppers. A general strike—Vive la France!—tosses a slapstick wrench into Paulette’s pledge, closing stores and forcing her to secure the chicken by other means. Police officers give slapstick chase. A watermelon truck and its kindly driver enter the fray. Paulette’s older sister, Astrid (Laetitia Dosch)—a yoga teacher who self-medicates with candy—is dragged into the mess… Chicken for Linda! explores the differences in grief and memory for child and spouse with a touch as wisely light as the movie’s score, by the composer Clément Ducol, which lands festive, thrilling, sorrowful notes instrumentally and in songs”.¬—Lisa Kennedy, NY Times