In these times of war, a poor woodcutter and his wife live in a large forest. One day the woman finds and rescues a little girl, bringing about an irreversible change in the lives of the couple and those whose paths cross the child. This is Michel Hazanavicius’ first animated film. This is the best 2024 release I’ve seen so far, and it’s mid-December 2024. It tells a story set in Poland during World War II, almost like a folktale. Most of the plot takes place in a forest so typical of the aforementioned folktales, surrounding a couple of loggers who adopt a little Jewish girl who is thrown off a deportation train passing through their forest. She was thrown out by her father to save her from certain death in Auschwitz. I won’t go into more details about the plot so you can see for yourself, I just want to add that the film will reach a deep philosophical conclusion. On the technical side, too, everything is done perfectly. The visuals of the film are remarkably done. The drawing style is just right, neither too detailed nor too messy, mostly showing low-light scenes with dominant shades of grey, thus highlighting the horrors of the most infamous war and mass extermination in human history. And then the soundtrack, which is sublime: The musical soundtrack, the sound effects, the narration and the dubbing (I saw the original version in French) are all perfectly suited to present this gem of a film. In conclusion, this is one of the best films dealing with the subject of racism and the Shoah in particular, through its artistic approach and the story it wants to tell.