20/41
In war-torn times, a poor lumberjack and his wife live in a large forest. One day, the woman finds and saves a little girl, bringing an irrevocable change to the lives of the couple and those whose paths the child will cross… This is Michel Hazanavicius' first animated film.. This is the best 2024 release I’ve seen this year so far and we are in mid-December 2024. It tells a story taking place in Poland during World War II, almost like a folktale. Most of the plot takes place in a forest so typical of the aforementioned folktales, telling how two lumberjacks adopt a Jewish little girl who was thrown off a deportation train crossing their forest. She was thrown off by her father to save her from certain death in Auschwitz. I won’t go into the details of the plot so you can see for yourself, I just want to add that the film will reach a deep philosophical conclusion. On the technical side, everything is also done perfectly. The visuals of the film are exceptionally done. The drawing style is just right, not too detailed, nor too rough, showing mainly scenes in low light with dominant shades of gray, thus highlighting the horrors of the most scandalous war and the emergence of mass extermination in human history. And then the soundtrack, which is sublime: The musical score, the sound effects, the narration and the voice acting (I saw the original version in French), all perfectly suited to present this jewel of a film. In conclusion, this is one of the best films dealing with the subject of racism and the Shoah in particular, due to its artistic procedure and the story it wants to tell.