Patriarchal and paternalistic structures at both a family and country level are put in the spotlight by Robin Campillo in a story loosely inspired by his own childhood. It’s the early 1970s and though the island of Madagascar became independent a decade before, the French remain a dominant presence. The action unfolds at an air base where youngster Thomas Lopez (Charlie Vauselle) lives with his mum Colette (Nadia Tereszkiewicz), dad Robert (Quim Gutierrez) and his brothers.

We first encounter Thomas as he peeps out from the crate where he is reading his favourite books about masked crime fighting youngster Fantômette - she, in fact, gets her own fantasy sequences in the film, although it is the adults whose features are, tellingly, more fully masked.

“You’re always spying,” his mum tells him later, and it is through Thomas’ eyes that we voyeuristically soak up the details of life on the base,...