He returns to the big screen “in a somewhat surprising way”, notes the Méliès programmer, with a moving animated film. Michel Hazanavicius has indeed adapted the poignant book, written in the form of a tale by Jean-Claude Grumberg, a work awarded the special jury prize of the 2019 Booksellers Prize and the 2019 L'Express/BFMTV Readers' Prize. This son and grandson of a deportee recounts the horror of the Shoah, of the deportation and extermination of the Jews, without ever showing anything and without sinking into the pathos.
The story follows the steps and the life of a couple who live in a snowy forest: Poor woodcutter and his wife, Poor woodcutter. One day, in a forest crossed by a railway line and many trains, poor woodcutter goes to take in a baby. This “most precious of goods” for this woman in need of a child was thrown away by a father on the way to a concentration camp. “The Most Precious of Goods” speaks of horror, but also of the best, with these “Righteous” who saved lives at the risk of their own…
“It’s told in the style of a tale,” insists Xavier Le Falher, through the voice-over of the immense actor Jean-Louis Trintignant, who died in 2022. Which does not prevent – on the contrary – this film from animation, like the original book, of “asking current questions, and also questioning what it is to be a parent…” presented in Competition at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival, the film won the prize Cinema positive, “to salute his commitment and his message on strong themes, full of hope and humanity”. Méliès is taking advantage of the release of the film to invite the authors of “A Sunday in Auschwitz” who, too, have taken a step aside to talk about the unspeakable.
Sunday November 24 at 5:30 p.m., session followed by a presentation of the book “A Sunday in Auschwitz”, by the authors Yaël Uzan-Holveck and Laurent Wajnberg. Reading words from visitors to Auschwitz, alongside photos from the book.
At Café Méliès: meetings and book stand, in partnership with the Escampette bookstore
