A double entendre, the title alludes to Walt Disney’s utopian plan to build The Florida Project, an “Experimental Prototype Community of Tomorrow” – subverted after his death, with vestiges incorporated in the lucrative Walt Disney World. Today, “project” is also the American term for council estates, which often have Disney-style names that jar with their reality. The film’s action centres on the real-life budget motels bordering on the famous Orlando theme park. Originally intended to accommodate tourist overflow, they have gone to seed and provide a refuge, of sorts, for marginalised members of society.

The juxtaposition is encapsulated in a scene where the child protagonists celebrate a birthday by sharing a cupcake in a damp field while watching the distant fireworks display. Most of the cast are amateurs, with the notable exception of Willem Dafoe, who received numerous Best Supporting Actor awards and nominations for his contribution (Oscar, Golden Globe, BAFTA and Screen Actors Guild, etc.)

“Baker pays tribute in the end credits to ‘The Little Rascals’ shorts from the 1920s and ’30s. […] But what it really reminded me of was ‘Little Fugitive, ‘ the great 1953 independent movie, about a boy let loose in Brooklyn’s Coney Island, that influenced the French New Wave, or François Truffaut’s ‘Small Change,’ in which childhood is comprehended, without sticky sentimentality, as an enraptured time of life.” Peter Rainer, The Christian Science Monitor