BOUCHRA is the first animated feature from directors Orian Barki and Meriem Bennani.

It’s the story of Bouchra (voiced by Bennani herself) – a queer coyote who happens to be a New York filmmaker.

Bouchra has a lot on her mind as she tries to bring her vision to life. First there’s the usual anxieties about her art not being good enough. Next, she’s in a gentle push-and-pull with her ex-partner; trying to stay friends and put the past behind them.

Most of all though, Bouchra feels a strain surrounding her relationship with her mother and how her queer identity has affected that bond. Both sides are trying to make sense of where their relationship stands and how it got there…but finding the words to say things left unsaid can be such a challenge.

We can happily report that BOUCHRA is up to the task.

Often BOUCHRA can feel like a rainy afternoon spent sinking into your smartphone – I say that as a compliment.

There is a whole world in our device: Where we go in that world can dictate our mood from moment to moment. There are memories, distractions, cherished pieces of information, and mindless frivolities. Sinking into it can connect us to other people, or isolate us deeply.

This movie knows these sensations well and puts it into the characters eyes and voices, the rooms they stand in, and the world outside the windows. Some of it is complex, some of it is sweetly simple; all of it is beautiful.

To hear BOUCHRA tell it, sometimes art is the therapy we didn’t do.

The therapy would probably be cheaper and more time-efficient, but then we wouldn’t have both the beauty of a new story and the the collective understanding that makes us feel less alone. This is the core of BOUCHRA – a film where the settings, languages, identities, and very characters themselves could be anywhere and anyone.

If a talking coyote can work out her mommy issues, maybe there’s hope for the rest of us!