Animation, as Guillermo del Toro incessantly reminds us, isn’t a style however a medium, and one which has been underserved by the Cannes Movie Pageant, as even the medium’s masterworks are hardly ever in competition for the vaunted Palme d’Or on the annual fest. Michel Hazanavicius’ “The Most Valuable of Cargoes” is among the few animated efforts that has been bestowed the distinction of premiering in competitors, and is the primary since “Waltz with Bashir” in 2008, when Ari Folman’s harrowing account of the Sabra and Shatila massacres utilized the shape to depict the malleability of reminiscence round far-reaching traumas.
Now, 14 years later, an equally tough material is drawn throughout the display screen with “The Most Valuable of Cargoes,” an unflinching however elegant Holocaust fable tailored from Jean-Claude Grumberg’s 2019 novella of the identify identify.
The movie takes place in a darkish, wintry forest on the outskirts of Auschwitz in the course of the peak of World Struggle II. A poor woodcutter and a poor woodcutter’s spouse (they’re solely ever named as such) have misplaced their solely little one and aged out of the potential to have extra. They go their days in uneasy détente, him content material with out worrying one other mouth to feed whereas she prays to each god at her disposal for one more probability at motherhood.
It’s a chilly, merciless world; at all times winter, however by no means Christmas, and the snowflakes that dance gently upon the wind evoke the ashes that rise from the fiery stacks of the close by camp.
It’s on this desolate panorama that the grieving woodcutter’s spouse discovers a uncommon signal of life from a prepare monitor close by their residence, one whose vacationers are destined for the focus camp so shut by. Naively, she identifies it as an emblem of hope and prays to the “god of the prepare” to ease her struggling. The prepare itself is among the extra beautiful animated components, and its effective line work and depth of shade turn into more and more daring as the reality of its objective is revealed. It shifts from vibrant signal of modernity to one thing really demonic, screeching by way of the frozen wilderness to achieve the gates of Hell.
At first, the poor woodcutter’s spouse is unaware of simply what kind of profound evil is tearing down the railway tracks and drops to her knees to wish for a miracle — and people prayers are seemingly met. A small child lands within the snow in entrance of her, wrapped in a white, gold, and blue tallit. Her husband is appalled by this new addition to their lives, viewing the candy child woman as “heartless” and a part of a race of “cursed bastards” that toss their very own youngsters out of trains not in an act of desperation, however of fiscal irresponsibility.
Because the movie goes on, we get to see past the lives of the poor woodcutter and the poor woodcutter’s spouse, journeying each into the prepare itself and the circumstance that led to a beloved child being thrown into the snow to keep away from a way more merciless destiny inside Auschwitz. Because the movie retains its beautiful aesthetic, Hazanavicius pushes past the gates of the focus camp, juxtaposing it with the ugliness of mankind and, because the poor woodcutter’s spouse comes to grasp, what really introduced this little one into her life. It was not a god’s generosity, however his abandonment.
Again within the relative security of the forest, the fairy story nature is highlighted by unsubtle moments that border on twee because the snow and the poor woodcutter’s antisemitism thaws, however “The Most Valuable of Cargoes” retains its energy by punctuating that sentimentality with sadism. The nice and cozy tone of Jean-Louis Trintignant’s narration and a basic picture-book aesthetic lure the viewer into a way of consolation, as we’re nonetheless anticipated to grapple with not solely what occurs to babes left within the woods, however the destiny of whose who remained wrapped of their mother and father’ arms. The evils inside the movie really feel tragically prescient, and “The Most Valuable of Cargoes” makes these parallels specific, as when Denis Podalydès’ Man with the Damaged Face explains that he sustained his accidents throughout one other battle, although it doesn’t matter which, as “they’re all the identical.”
Whereas Hazanavicius doesn’t appear to know methods to finish his story and like, within the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy, the movie concludes with a sequence of codas. every of which diminishes the facility of the one prior. Even with a slim 81-minute working time, the movie’s remaining act begins to bloat and Hazanavicius’ route feels much less confident. The filmmaker adopts unsubtle new animation thrives to depict the lingering traumas, however none have the magnificence of his opening photographs of white flakes falling over tree stumps, and the narration turns into equally heavy-handed.
As a contender for the Palme d’Or, “The Most Valuable of Cargoes” may not have fairly the legacy of “Waltz with Bashir” forward of it, however it’s a compelling argument that Cannes shouldn’t wait one other 16 years to offer animated work an opportunity to compete for its most valuable award.
Grade: B+
“The Most Valuable of Cargoes” premiered on the 2024 Cannes Movie Pageant. It’s at present searching for U.S. distribution.