46/33
During a war-torn era, a poor woodcutter and his wife live in a large forest. One day, the woman finds and rescues a little girl, which brings an irreversible change to the lives of the couple and those whose paths the child crosses. This is Michel Hazanavicius’ first animated film.. This is by far the best 2024 release I’ve seen this year, and we’re in mid-December 2024. It tells a story that takes place in Poland during World War II, almost like a popular fairy tale. Most of the plot takes place in a forest typical of the aforementioned popular stories, when a couple of woodcutters arrive and adopt a little Jewish girl who was thrown off a deportation train passing through their forest. Her father threw her away to save her from certain death in Auschwitz. I won’t go into the details of the plot so you can see, I just want to add that the film reaches a deep philosophical conclusion. From a technical point of view, everything is done perfectly. The visuals of the film are excellent. The art style is just right, not too detailed and not too harsh, and it depicts mostly dimly lit scenes with dominant shades of gray, which highlights the horrors of the most infamous war and genocide in human history. And then there is the soundtrack, which is sublime: The music, the sound effects, the narration and the dubbing (I saw the original version in French) all fit perfectly to present the gem of the film. In conclusion, this is one of the best films that deals with racism and the Shoah in particular through its artistic process and story.