The Most Precious of Cargoes, on DVD

Just as the legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin is based on a historical tragedy, Jean-Claude Grumberg’s novella fable is clearly inspired by very real and very tragic events. He would know. Grumberg’s father was murdered in Auschwitz. Despite the Jew-hatred they always accepted, a reluctant wood-cutter and his wife protect a tiny would-be victim in Michel Hazanavicius’s animated feature, The Most Precious of Cargoes, which releases today on DVD.

Wood-cutters pop up regularly in fairy tales, but it will take a while for the taciturn, barrel-chested man to display the stout-heartedness they are often associated with. He and his aging wife never had children of their own, which he eventually accepted. However, when she saves an infant dropped from a transport bound to Auschwitz (never truly named, but clearly identifiable from its grimly distinctive entrance), she literally interprets it as the answer to her prayers.

Initially, the Wood-cutter adamantly opposes keeping the child, regurgitating the classic antisemitic tropes that Jews are warmongers and monsters, who killed Christ. In fact, “the Heartless” is the ironic shorthand his fellow wood-cutters use to demonize Jews. Yet, the little girl melts the gruff man’s heart just when she will most need his protection.

As narrator Jean-Louis Trintignant clearly states (in his final screen credit), this will not be a fairy tale—but it clearly employs many of the traditional elements of Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. Indeed, the Wood-cutter’s forest holds distinctly gothic overtones. However, when the action shifts to the concentration camp, the film takes on an expressionistic style worthy of Edvard Munch. By largely avoiding literal representations, it becomes one of the more powerful cinematic depictions of the Holocaust.

Co-adapted by Hazanavicius and Grumberg, from the latter’s short novel, Most Precious of Cargoes eschews cheap feel-good formulas. There is much in the film that is virtuous and edifying. However, the sadness and the tragedy persist and compound. The critical events of this film are not the sort of things you “work through” or “get over.” The pain and consequences are ever present. At best, the affected characters can only survive them. That might not be a message a lot of viewers will want to hear. Of course, a lot of New York Mamdani voters will resent the subject matter in general.

Hazanavicius’s animation is deceptively simple, but there is great power in its starkness. Despite representing his animation debut, Most Precious of Cargoes is an unusually mature work. It deserved a real theatrical release, but it should translate easily to smaller screens. Very highly recommended, The Most Precious of Cargoes goes on-sale today (6/23) on DVD.