The 9th Sharjah International Film Festival for Children and Youth marked the debut of its eagerly awaited ‘Green Carpet’ event Tuesday evening with the screening of the beautifully filmed adaptation, The Secret Garden, at VOX Cinemas in Al Zahia, Sharjah.

This first-of-its-kind event at SIFF offered an opportunity for the audience to engage with the filmmakers and discuss the behind-the-scenes making of the rich, dense film that honours Frances Hodgson Burnett’s classic 1911 story of alienation, anger and illness.

The welcoming décor with a refreshing green walkway and inviting floral arch leading to the theatre was a mesmerising spectacle inspired by the film’s pastoral gardenscape.

Directed by Marc Munden, The Secret Garden is  a coming-of-age tale of young orphan Mary Lennox (Dixie Egerickx) who successfully finds a new lease of life and undergoes a positive transformation as she begins to fall in love with her ‘secret’ garden. The therapeutic power of nature is beautifully presented in the film with magical elements and dazzling performances to match and is brought to life through vivid characterisation, sufficient realism, depiction of human nature and misgivings, suspense and mystery.

During a discussion following the screening of the film, Munden pointed out that at its core, “the film explores the darker theme of grief, and how with the right nurturing and attentive care, broken hearts can be healed by forging a strong connection through nature, allowing it to bloom back to vibrant life.”

The film presents a fair share of pain, troubling sentiments and dramatic twists and turns seamlessly running throughout, and there is active imagination too at play with the characters as they grapple with their own life’s difficulties and loneliness. The film is a telling lesson that all is really not lost if only one could brave up and be curious and imaginative.

At the heart of The Secret Garden is a reverence for nature that stimulates positivity and fodder for Mary to genuinely celebrate life as it is meant to be.  

VOX Cinema Al Zahia will screen Croissant and The Electrical Life of Louis Wain as part of its Green Carpet agenda while Al Jawaher Reception and Convention Centre, Sharjah, will mark its Green Carpet debut with Farha, The Neighbourhood Storyteller, and Paper Flower.