Review of the animated movie « The most valuable cargo » by Michel Khazanavichus
The Ukrainian rental cartoon « The most valuable cargo » about unconditional love during the misery of war was released. Author of the animated film, famous French director and great friend of Ukraine Michel Khazanavichuspersonally presented him in Kiev.
In his review of a movie viewer Up. Culture And the military of the Armed Forces Yaroslav Pidhora-Gvyadovsky Disassembles the cartoon « The most valuable cargo ».
No, the cartoon does not apply to the Russian-Ukrainian war. But repeatedly coming to Ukraine, coming to the front, communicating with our warriors and even writing about it book, Currently published in France, Khazanavichus operated on eternal values, among which « war is horror » and « love – miracle » is the base.
Why is the director of art, well known for his « Oscar-bearing », unique and artistic, black and white « artist », made an animation movie? For all fragility, subtlety of feeling called love is able to be fully conveyed only in such a fragile way as animation (after a recent « stream », Latvian-French-Belgian « Oscar-bearing » cartoon, it seems to be all).
Probably, Khazanavichus reached the desired trend of animation 10-15 years ago, when he filmed the military drama « The Search ». Then the history of rescue of children during the Second Chechen War demanded to show cruelty outside and only to outline love as an antithesis of war. And also to assert the fact of a paradoxical triumph of life, despite the action of Russians who tried to exterminate all of Ichkeria.
Now the director, hardened by pain and death in the frame, decided to touch the naked and unconditional feeling, the subtle perception of the « little and defenseless », which are young children.
Frame from the most valuable « most valuable cargo »
Not too bright and not very spectacular not too complicated at the beginning of the « most valuable cargo » does not contain a contrasting horror of the « search » and cunning « artist ». All this to simplify the form to make it easier to enter the dramatic plot.
Somewhere in the middle of the forest, two, a logger and his wife try to survive in their commemorative impoverishment. They live unfortunately and without much desire, after the death of their only child, lively lively. What happens then happens almost fabulously, amazingly, clearly on the calls and prayers of a woman to God.
During the next heavy harvesting of dry branches in the forest, covered with snow, she finds a girl wrapped in a characteristic striped tissue of the infant in the infant, probably thrown out of a train that just passed by a woman.
At first, the logger categorically does not want to accept such a « cargo », and for his wife the baby becomes a gift of God, and the care of him is his order and his happiness. The unconditional love that is not discussed and is not questioned.
Frame from the most valuable « most valuable cargo »
Khazanavichus, along with the screenwriter Jean-Claude Hrumbeg, intentionally do not immediately indicate when and where the events occur, do not show who threw away the baby and why. It is only at the beginning that the overwhelming voice, sadly telling about the logger, states: « … World War, the same world. » And only later, when the logger has already accepted the « cargo » and loved the girl, drinking with his friends for the rapid end of the war, hears the call, that the « heartless creatures », « who killed our God, » disappeared with the war. Unexpectedly, the logger denies the absence of a heart in « them ». And he encounters the view of one of the friends, incredibly similar to Putin … Maybe it is a coincidence, but how often – constantly? – The chances are not accidental.
Why did the logger decide to deny his vodka brothers after his glass? Because, probably, something understood.
And here the cartoon goes into a real, serious movie, with parallel installation, flashbecks, cross -section of storylines and rigid topics, full of cruelty. The chamber drama becomes a thrillor with elements of military cinema and tragic subtext of the massacre of some, which tolerate the masses of others, and which is well associated with our war, where the Russians, not only Putin, are massively demanding and wanting the destruction of Ukrainians.
Frame from the most valuable « most valuable cargo »
Hazanavichus involves purely cinematographic techniques to show how the logger considers the story of « cargo »: as if he sees a train closed in it, the look of a man between the boards of a wagon, seen by him The window of this « most valuable cargo » is covered. The logger understands who these « heartless » murderers, and who is now loved by him is the most valuable – load.
It is already clear that when, where, where and how it all happened. But Khazanavichus adds and adds to the history of spooky details, bringing to an emotional peak: two still alive in « striped pajamas » with a yellow star of David on « heartless » breasts wear bodies similar to them, but already dead. And then – a frozen frame, as if multiplied by the characters of « cry » of Munch. Silent scream of cold nightmare.
At the end, the fairytale, which was refused by the overwhelming voice at the beginning, and which Khazanavichus still meant, forming a « new » fairy tale from the horror movie, manifests itself in all its white beauty. When a miracle surviving after the camp, the father, the same who saved his own – at least one – a child, finds her in many years. Initially guessing, because he noticed a characteristic striped fabric in the market under pieces of cheese, and then, 20 years later, he saw on the cover of the magazine a copy of his wife, already known in Poland, a man, daughter of a logger and cheese saleswoman.
Frame from the most valuable « most valuable cargo »
The sensuality of the cartoon leaves a deep mark of sadness and gratitude to the director for the opportunity to survive it. This is the case where Cinema gives catharsis, possible only because of heartache, little clear, but strangely effective. To understand the past, to understand the horror and torment of those who were tormented during it, not intentionally, mentally, through information – it becomes dry statistics. It is only through sensory organs – the eyes that look at the screen, and the ears that hear, and the soul that can empathize.
Michelle Khazanavichus was quite achieved. And perhaps because he saw the war, albeit not the Second World War, but Russian-Ukrainian (the Third World?), And spoke with its participants, and experienced their pain. Because his genus is also from Ukraine, and also because he is a person who is able to empathize, an artist capable of realizing the subject to empathize with others …
Frame from the most valuable « most valuable cargo »
Interestingly, the cartoon hero, his father, is written off almost literally from the actually known figure, Victor Frankl, the Austrian psychologist and writer who passed the Nazi concentration camps, survived, and later created his, after Froid and Jung, a psychotherapeutic school. His subsequent practice, oddly enough, given that he survived and described in the book « Man in search of true meaning » is the propaganda of love, unconditional love, let him around and reign insane.
