23/38
In war-torn times, a poor lumberjack and his wife live in a large forest. One day, the wife finds and saves a little girl, irrevocably changing the lives of the couple and those whose path the child crosses… This is Michel Hazanavicius’ first animated film. This is the best release of 2024 that I’ve seen so far this year, and we’re in mid-December 2024. It tells a story set in Poland during World War II, almost like a folk tale. Most of the action takes place in a forest so typical of the aforementioned folk tales, and tells the story of how two lumberjacks adopt a Jewish girl who was thrown out of a deportation train that passed through their forest. She was thrown out by her father to save her from certain death in Auschwitz. So that you can form your own opinion, I won’t go into detail about the plot here. I would just like to add that the film will reach a deep philosophical conclusion. Technically, everything is also very well done. The film’s visual effects are exceptionally well done. The drawing style is just right, neither too detailed nor too crude. Most of the scenes are shown in low light with dominant gray tones, highlighting the horrors of the most notorious war and the genesis of mass destruction in the history of mankind. And then the soundtrack, which is simply sublime: the score, the sound effects, the narration and the voice acting (I saw the original version in French), all of it is perfectly attuned to present this cinematic gem. In conclusion, it is one of the best films dealing with the issue of racism and in particular the Shoah, due to its artistic process and the story it wants to tell.