From the age of two and a half, Sasha has insisted she’ll grow up a girl. She was born in a boy’s body. In his tender observational documentary, film-maker Sébastien Lifshitz’s (Les Invisibles, Bambi, Adolescentes) spends a year following seven-year-old Sasha and her family as they struggle to navigate her gender dysphoria in their provincial French home town. Cinematographer Paul Guilhaume captures Sasha in widescreen, his camera watchful as she pads delicately across the room in ballet class, growing in confidence and expressiveness with each purposeful step. Her teacher is less generous.

The film is as much about Sasha as it is about her fiercely protective mother, Karine, who initially blames herself for having wanted a baby girl. A kind specialist explains that it doesn’t work that way, and that there are other children in the same situation. Heartbreakingly, Sasha squeezes her mum’s hand, her worried face breaking into a reassured smile.

• Little Girl is in cinemas and streaming on Curzon Home Cinema