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Kate Bush: Little Shrew review – this devastating film will make you weep at war’s violence against children

Written, directed and soundtracked by Bush, built up from sketches she drew herself, this four-minute animation is suffused with both love and horror

As Bush says of Bertie in an accompanying essay: “I think his performance is extremely moving and although I’d originally written the song to capture his beautiful descant voice before he entered adolescence, it has taken on a haunting new meaning within the context of this animation.” These were drawn up by Jim Kay, the illustrator best known for Patrick Ness’s A Monster Calls (which inspired Bush) and pictorial editions of the Harry Potter series, and then animated with the studio Inkubus. She herself is perhaps that orb of light, asserting once more: “The world is so loud / Keep falling / I’ll find you” – a moving reminder to the children of Ukraine that they are not forgotten, intensified by this song suffused with such ardent, active love for her own son.

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