The motif of animals, whether animated or otherwise, has remained a firm favourite in fantasies and adventures for children and have made their presence felt again in the movies presented on Thursday on the penultimate day of the seventh edition of the Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth (SIFF).

In Fatemeh Tousi’s The American Bull, a young boy who managed his household by using his bull’s breeding services finds it hard to let go of his favourite companion when the once strong bovine turns old and sterile. For him, the bull is more than just income; he is a much loved and pampered member of the house.

The friendship of a little girl with her house forms the plot for Horse, directed by Cynthia Fernández Trejo from Mexico. Lines between fantasy and reality get blurred in this short drama as the little girl goes in search of a stone to help her to be a horse and escape from death.

Faisal Al-Aamer’s The Rat is heavy with symbolism and explores a fictional scenario where his hypnotically boring existence literally changes him from human to rodent!

Swiss animator Oana Lacroix tells the story of a Rainbow Forest in Colorbirds where only single-coloured birds live. The film explores what happens when a bird with two colours finds he has no spot to perch.

In Stuffed, a six-student team from France tells a cat-based story focused around mental health, friendship, and growth driving home the core message of reaching out for help instead of bottling up emotions and offering help to those who need it.

A pet parrot set free by a young girl becomes the reason for an adventure in the city in Adrien Rouquie’s expertly animated Outdoors while Japan’s Koichiro Miki casts a spell with The Traveling Cat Chronicles as we follow Satoru who is on a mission to find his cat, Nana, a new home! The search turns into a journey that explores Satoru’s past, his old friendships, and the tragedy that shaped his childhood.

Amongst the movies that touched on human displacement issues included Peruvian-American Marco Bollinger’s Dance is My Gun featuring the story of Ahmad Chabaan, a trained ballet dancer but a Syrian refugee in Beirut who continues to dance to find hope in a hopeless place. The film is an attempt to show that Syria is not just war, suffering, and anger – but also beauty, art, and music.

Movies scheduled screened on Friday, the last day of the festival, included The Job, Fifty Thousand Photographs, Uncle Thomas, Accounting for the Days, and Sadeya Left Sultan.