What age is Spread Your Wings (Donne-moi des ailes) appropriate for?

9 alone, 8 with a parent; 9 in France. The whole movie, watched in full: what's in it, and how to talk about it with your child.

Why is Spread Your Wings (Donne-moi des ailes) not recommended under 9?

What's in it: our reading; geese are shot at; strong language, often; a flight that goes wrong; wine and cigarettes on screen; what looks worse than it is. The detail, fact by fact, is in the zinema guide, which reads the work itself (images, sound, dialogue).

zinema · movies · what age

Spread Your Wings (Donne-moi des ailes): what age is it for? 9 alone, 8 with a parent

9 alone, 8 with a parent.

Movie · 2019 · 1 h 53 · adventure, family

YRS

The trailer

Alone, or with you

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not yetwith an adult, or to talk about afteralonethe sweet spot

Alone from 9; from 8, with an adult or by talking about it afterwards.

The sweet spot: around 10-12, when you can grasp that a grown-up may be wrong and right at the same time. Why a sweet spot?

In France, zinema would say 9.

Watch the trailerContinue in zinemathen where to watch it, in zinema · more trailers, and where to watch films · Where to stream itWhere to watch

What it's about

Christian, a visionary scientist, studies wild geese. For his son, a teenager obsessed with video games, the idea of spending a holiday with his father in the wilderness is a nightmare. However, father and son will get together around a crazy project: save a species endangered, thanks to the ultralight of Christian! Then begins an incredible and perilous journey ...

Why 9

Our readingGeese are shot and killed, and a child who loves animals will take that harder than anything else in the film. The language is sharp between adults, but it is the guns that count.
reading
Geese are shot atHunting is part of the story: guns are fired and birds the boy has raised are killed. A child who loves animals will feel this more sharply than anything else in the film, even though nothing is dwelt on in a gory way.
shown
Strong language, oftenThe adults swear freely and repeatedly, the everyday French equivalents of damn, hell and worse, more than forty times across the film. It is the main reason we do not put this lower than nine.
shown
A flight that goes wrongThe journey turns risky more than once: a boy off on his own, a father frightened for him, tense radio exchanges and a few genuinely anxious stretches. It resolves well, but the middle stretch has real worry in it.
shown
Wine and cigarettes on screenAdults drink wine at table and smoke fairly often. It is background habit, never celebrated, but it is visible throughout.
shown
What looks worse than it isLoud takeoffs, shouting over engine noise, faces strained with fear and a couple of scuffles can read as more violent than they play. Much of the noise and the alarm here comes from flying an ultralight in bad weather, not from people hurting each other.
shown

What the movie brings

A patient, concrete look at what it takes to protect an endangered species.
A father and a son who start out as strangers and slowly learn each other's language.
Real footage of flight and open country that rewards a child who likes to watch closely.

Watching it together

Before

You could say beforehand that some of the birds do not make it, and that hunters are part of the story.

After

at 9 and up

Why do you think the geese followed him? What would you have been willing to do for them?

See the facts

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For the same age, on zinema

Percy Jackson and the Olympians 9, 8 with a parent
Star Wars: Skeleton Crew 9, 8 with a parent
God Save the Tuche 9, 8 with a parent
Bienvenue chez les Ch'tis 9, 8 with a parent

The latest guides

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Apollo 13 9, 8 with a parent

A zinema reading from September 27, 2026 · the whole movie, watched in full · the age by zinema's rules for the US and France, and a human reading · report an error · how this guide is made