When I was young, I had a Little Red Riding Hood doll. She had a red felt dress that, when pulled up over her head, revealed not her legs but rather the grandmother from the children’s story. And if you pulled back her white lace bonnet, you would find not the back of her head, but the face of the grinning, villainous wolf.

Fascinated as I was with this doll, I’d forgotten about its existence until it appeared before me on the screen in Janet Planet. As I watched another little red-haired girl discover the mysteries hidden within the ingenious little doll, I was hit with a visceral memory that sent me hurtling back to my own childhood and the thorny, complicated emotions that came with it.

Janet Planet: the must-see indie film that captures the complexity of the mother-daughter bond