The miracle happened on day five. A benevolent wizard, white-haired and owl-featured, descended from the skies above Venice. The mood of the festival changed, from sceptical to serene, as the wizard told a story about a fish with a little girl’s face who spreads delight in a coastal village. The critics, recognising a fable about art’s power to enchant and the storyteller as epiphanic visitor, catapulted this story – or film – to the top of the chart in the daily festival journal.