‘The Most Precious of Cargoes’ Review: An Animated Fable from the Director of ‘The Artist’ Finds Hope in the Holocaust
variety.comPeter Debruge Chief Film Critic Of all the films premiering at Cannes this year, “The Most Precious of Cargoes” is both an anomaly (the first animated feature to compete for the Palme d’Or since “Persepolis” in 2007) and the most likely to become a classic.
Blending the heavy lines of early-20th-century woodcuts with the gentle pastels of watercolor painting, “The Artist” director Michel Hazanavicius finds a poignant way to address not only the horrors of the Holocaust, but the kinds of kindness that combatted it, crafting an indelible parable destined to be watched and shared by generations to come.
The polar opposite of “The Zone of Interest,” his hand-drawn adaptation of the slender but impactful novel by Jean-Claude Grumberg engages audiences at the gut, rather than some abstract intellectual way.
It focuses on neither the culprits nor the victims, but average folk who tried to remain neutral — as if such a thing were possible — until such time as they were obliged to engage.
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