What is the film about?

Sasha struggles at home. Her parents expect her to tidy up her room, eat porridge and do homework. Sasha decides that life in the zoo sounds much more interesting! She heads off to try and find her place among a bunch of penguins or maybe giraffes?

A little background information...

A couple of years ago I went to a lovely zoo in Stuttgart and enjoyed seeing fruit bats inside a glasshouse. They were so close to me and it was so lovely and warm inside that I thought – what if i decided to live in the zoo? I did a sketch of a little girl dressed up as a penguin and then wrote a little story. It’s based on me – when I was little I struggled with all my parents’ boundaries and rules.

At first I pitched the story as a picture book – but publishers didn’t pick it up. I was about to give up on trying to tell this story when I was approached by an animation studio “Soyuzmultfilm”. They were looking for ideas for short films for kids. I sent it to them and a couple of months later they emailed me asking if I wanted to direct it.

How was the film made?

“Soyuzmultfilm” received the funding from the Russian Ministry of Culture. I worked with a very talented animation team based in St. Petersburg, Russia. Natalia Gabis did all the rigging and helped me to work with the animators. Ekaterina Plaksina drew beautiful backgrounds. Tom Angell wrote the lovely music and did all the sound design too. My niece Lyla McLeod and my husband Myles McLeod did the voices. The Russian version is voiced by Alisa Tashkinova and Dmitrij Tashkinov. It took us a year to complete the film and it did very well at the festivals.