La plus précieuse des marchandises

The Most Precious of Cargoes is a friendly reminder that life is not fiction, and that much more important things can happen that are way further beyond belief.

The film takes place in a dark, wintry forest on the outskirts of Auschwitz during the height of World War II. A poor woodcutter and a poor woodcutter's wife have lost their only child and aged out of the potential to have more. They pass their days in uneasy détente, him content without worrying another mouth to feed while she prays to every god at her disposal for another chance at motherhood. It's a cold, cruel world; always winter, but never Christmas, and the snowflakes that dance gently upon the wind evoke the ashes that rise from the fiery stacks of the nearby camp.

"The most precious of cargoes" is an animated movie. It is made by Michel Hazanavicius, who I only knew from "The artist" (2011) more than 10 years ago. A director switching to the animation genre immediatly made me curious. Even Stanley Kubrick, who tried a new genre with every new film, never ventured into animation

"The most precious of cargoes" is an animated movie about the Holocaust. There were some voices that an animated movie is not well suited for such a serious subject. I don't agree after seeing the movie. Moreover such discussions have been going on for a long time. After Roberto Benigni made a tragedy / comedy with "La vita e bella" in 1997 he more or less faced the same criticism.

I first thought that the film would be akin to "The zone of interest" (2023, Jonathan Glazer) with the following differences: The relation to the Holocaust is not that the family is living next to Auschwitz ("The zone of interest") but next to the railroad track for the trains heading to Auschwitz.

The family in "The most precious of cargoes" is simple and good in stead of upper middle class and evil.

In "The zone of interest" the horrors of the Holocaust can only be heard but not seen, while in the second part of "The most precious of cargoes" there are some horrible images.

The second association is that with a fairy tale. This association is reinforced by a voice over that begins with "Once upon a time". By the way the narrator in this film is Jean Louis Trintignant in his last "appearance", and the way he introduces the story at the beginning and summarizes the moral at the end alone makes the film worth watching.

As a fairy tale the mood of the film for a large part resembles that of "Bambi" (1942, Walt Disney) with men against men in stead of men against deer. But don't be fooled. Contrary to "Bambi" there are some explicit images in "The most prescious of cargoes".

Just like "The zone of interest", "The most precious of cargoes" is about the Holocaust in the first place but on a more abstract level also about something more general. "The zone of interest" is also about the banality of evil as it is called by philosopher Hannah Ahrendt. "The most precious of cargoes" is also about the power of love. This sounds teribble sentmental, but listen to the last voice over of Jean Louis Trintignant and I hope you agree it isn't.

By the way stories about baby's of a persecuted race abaondend in pure despair are as old as the human race itself. Think about the story of Moses from the Old Testament.

The second world war is one of the darkest tiles in humanity. A time where humanity just swore off the grey war, where the world was witness to the extent of human cruelty. A time where promised was rebirth, redemption and peace. Faith's hand just struck Europe in its most habitual gruesome fashion, the towering debt of a great war and a lost generation towering over it. The world stood still, not because of the Schick, or at least not only because if it but because of what lies beneath. Ahead of what is the world's greatest tragedy up to that time lies an ever more bleak future. Germany was in ruin, having just lost a war, the faith if its people and the power of its empire. Vengeance was sworn for the humiliation. A few years after that remarkably dark period, there was a humble and old couple of German woodworkers. The man goes to cut down big trees and the woman bundles the small branches. Both spending a hard day of work to come to a small house in the middle of the forest where hit soup and a tired old dog await. Never had a child the woman begs all that there is, having forsaken god or never having brought up to date with it. She begs the sky, the wood and even the train gods for a train. And one day the train gods answered her prayers. In that empty corner of the forest, a train pierced through the white winter snow, slowly but surly reaching it's dreaded destination. And one day a baby is thrown from the train only for the old wood woman to pick it up. A heartless thing for some, but not for her. What ensues is a beautifully made tragedy, a tale of humanity: the loving force within it that builds and sacrifices and it's inherently evil side that avenges and retributes. Michel hazanavicius animation film borrows a very comic like style that puts you within the heart of an enchanted forest, together with its peculiar set of characters and the bleak setting of the second world war, it's one of the years finest looking tear jerkers. A beautiful farewell to the illustrious career of Jean Louis Trintignant.

Initially, I thought we were in for a reversion of "Tom Thumb" as a surly woodcutter and his wife live a subsistence existence in the snowy forest where she longs for a child, but we are swiftly disabused of that theory! Their lives are only ever broken up by the disturbance of the train as it passes through, and it's when praying to that one day that she thinks she hears a baby crying. Searching the snow, she quickly discovers an infant wrapped in a distinctive blanket and quickly takes it to their home. Her husband, though, feels the child to be an ill omen and wants nothing to do with it, so with her and the bairn confined to the cold of the woodshed, she has to try to find it some milk! That's just the start of her travails, though, as we are gradually clued in to where this baby came from, and of the fate that awaited it's parents that led to such a desperate act of love. What now ensues follows her struggle to keep herself and the child from an increasingly approaching war that had hitherto largely left them be, and that might ultimately dot the i's and cross the t's of a story that is touching, courageous and heartening. The almost constant wintery scenario adds an additional chill to a stylishly presented animation that features a sparing degree of dialogue, but some fairly effective audio effects to help create a variety of emotions as the child begins to grow and this simple, decent, family find they no longer have their problems to seek. It's perhaps the last half hour that resonates most, as threads of the tale start to bind together revealing a degree of bleakness and inhumanity on one hand and yet the diametric opposite on the other. What wouldn't a parent do for a child?

This is the best 2024 release I've seen this year so far and we're in the middle of December 2024.

It tells a story happening in Poland during WWII, almost like a popular tale. Most of the plot happens in a forest, so typical for the aforementioned popular tales, turning around a pair of woodcutters adopting a Jewish baby girl who has been 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 further into details of the plot so you can see them by yourself, I just want to add the film will come to a deeply philosophical conclusion.

On the technical side all is done perfectly too. The movie's visuals are outstandingly done. The drawing style is just right, not too detailed nor too rough, mostly showing scenes in weak lighting with dominating shades of grey, thus underlining the horrors of the most infamous war and occurrence 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 totally appropriate to present this gem of a film.

In conclusion it's one of the best movies treating the subject of racism and particularly the Shoah, by its artistic procedure and the story it wants to tell.