Guest on Sunday in the 7:30 p.m. broadcast of RTS, Oscar-winning director Michel Hazanavicius presents his animated film. It tells the story of a baby, wrapped in a shawl, thrown from a death train in a Polish forest, then saved by a couple of lumberjacks. The work addresses the themes of the deportation, extermination and rescue of Jews.
Michel Hazanavicius, French director, began his career in television and advertising before becoming known with his parodies of 1950s spy films, “OSS 117”. In 2012, his homage to Hollywood silent cinema, “The Artist,” won him the Academy Award for Best Director.
His latest work “The Most Precious of Commodities”, presented this year in Cannes, is a poetic adaptation of a book by Jean-Claude Grumberg. It tells the story of a baby saved during World War II.
>> The portrait of Michel Hazanavicius in the 7:30 p.m.:
Beyond Jewish History
“This film is a non-violent statement which not only tells an episode in the history of the Jewish people, but which also places it at the level of the history of humanity. (…) It shows what we , human beings, we are capable of: the worst as well as the best,” explains Michel Hazanavicius.
It is the story of the righteous, of those who saved the honor of humanity. (…) They protected at the risk of their lives
Jean-Claude Grumberg’s book, of which the film is an adaptation, “shows us that each of us carries within us the potential to be a genocidalist or a victim. The good news is that we also have the potential to “to be righteous”, he adds.
According to the director, it’s a question of choice. Even if the world is falling apart around us, we still have the choice to behave well.
Premier film d’animation
Through this adaptation, Michel Hazanavicius claims to want to transmit a message of love. This message takes on a different dimension when it is embodied through characters, rather than simply stated, he emphasizes.
Thus, he chose to make an animated film, because he believes that it is the most appropriate tool to evoke and suggest terrible realities. This art allows for a more subtle and respectful approach.
A convoy of deportees, we cannot show the horror of what it was. (…) To evoke it, animation drawing seemed to me to be the most appropriate tool
In his narration he also uses suggestion, without ever explicitly mentioning the terms “Jew” or “Nazi”. This transforms the characters into human archetypes and makes the story universal.
To conclude, he says he is writing a book about the Ukrainian fighters he met on the front. It is a gallery of drawn and written portraits of soldiers he describes as heroic. “I’m quite proud to do this book,” he adds.
Comments collected by: jennifer Covo
Adaptation web: Miroslav Mares
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