Little Girl Blues

A Japanese girl living in Malta secretly travels alone to Gozo to return her dead puppy's favourite ball — not yet knowing the puppy is dead. Her journey through a village of extraordinary strangers brings her closer to a truth her mother has been hiding far longer than she knows.

MIMO, nine, lives in Malta with her Japanese mother TERUMI and a puppy, Timmy. When Timmy dies, Terumi can't bring herself to tell Mimo the truth and says he was sent to the village of Gharb on Gozo to be reunited with his litter. When Mimo finds Timmy's favourite red ball, she assumes he forgot it and sets off alone to return it. Going door to door in Gharb, she meets a clockmaker whose clocks stopped the hour his son died, a collector who refights wars only he can see, and a blind woman whose parable about a red balloon says more than she means it to. Each story, brought to life through a distinct animated sequence, brings Mimo closer to the truth. As night falls and a storm gathers, Mimo rescues a stray puppy in an act of quiet courage. Reunited with Terumi, mother and daughter finally tell each other the truth — about the dog, and about the father Mimo lost long before she understood what losing him meant.