The Most Precious of Cargoes main backdrop
The Most Precious of Cargoes main poster

The Most Precious of Cargoes

Visit website

7.4/10 • 85

2024-11-201h 20m

AnimationDramaHistory

Once upon a time, a poor woodcutter and his wife lived in a great forest. Cold, hunger, poverty, and a war raging all around them meant their lives were very hard. One day, the woodcutter's wife rescues a baby. A baby girl thrown from one of the many trains that constantly pass through the forest. This baby, this "most precious of cargoes", will transform the lives of the poor woodcutter's wife and her husband, as well as those whose paths the child will cross—including the man who threw her from the train. And some will try to protect her, whatever the cost. Their story will reveal the worst and the best in the hearts of men.

Directors
Michel Hazanavicius
Editors
Laurent Pelé-Piovani

Top Billed Cast

View Credits
  1. Dominique Blanc

    Dominique Blanc

    Wife (voice)

  2. Grégory Gadebois

    Grégory Gadebois

    Woodcutter (voice)

  3. Denis Podalydès

    Denis Podalydès

    Man with the Broken Face (voice)

  4. Jean-Louis Trintignant

    Jean-Louis Trintignant

    Narrateur (voice)

  5. Serge Hazanavicius

    Serge Hazanavicius

    Man in the mole hat (voice)

  6. Antonin Maurel

    Antonin Maurel

    The father (voice)

  7. Matej Hofmann

    Matej Hofmann

    Interpreter (voice)

  8. Laurent Bateau

    Laurent Bateau

    A fellow woodcutter (voice)

  9. Simon Volodine

    Simon Volodine

    A fellow woodcutter (voice)

Reviews1

View Reviews
CinemaSerf Avatar

CinemaSerf

Apr 20, 2025

7/10

Initially, I thought we were in for a reversion of “Tom Thumb” as a surly woodcutter and his wife live a subsistence existence in the snowy forest where she longs for a child, but we are swiftly disabused of that theory! Their lives are only ever broken up by the disturbance of the train as it passes through, and it’s when praying to that one day that she thinks she hears a baby crying. Searching the snow, she quickly discovers an infant wrapped in a distinctive blanket and quickly takes it to their home. Her husband, though, feels the child to be an ill omen and wants nothing to do with it, so with her and the bairn confined to the cold of the woodshed, she has to try to find it some milk! That’s just the start of her travails, though, as we are gradually clued in to where this baby came from, and of the fate that awaited it’s parents that led to such a desperate act of love. What now ensues follows her struggle to keep herself and the child from an increasingly approaching war that had hitherto largely left them be, and that might ultimately dot the i’s and cross the t’s of a story that is touching, courageous and heartening. The almost constant wintery scenario adds an additional chill to a stylishly presented animation that features a sparing degree of dialogue, but some fairly effective audio effects to help create a variety of emotions as the child begins to grow and this simple, decent, family find they no longer have their problems to seek. It’s perhaps the last half hour that resonates most, as threads of the tale start to bind together revealing a degree of bleakness and inhumanity on one hand and yet the diametric opposite on the other. What wouldn’t a parent do for a child?

Media

  • The Most Precious of Cargoes poster
  • The Most Precious of Cargoes poster
  • The Most Precious of Cargoes poster
  • The Most Precious of Cargoes poster
  • The Most Precious of Cargoes poster

Recommendations

  • The Third War main backdrop

    The Third War

    5.9

  • A Difficult Life main backdrop

    A Difficult Life

    8.1

  • Marinette main backdrop

    Marinette

    6.7

  • Sailing Home main backdrop

    Sailing Home

    7.3

  • Baby Invasion main backdrop

    Baby Invasion

    5.8

  • Savages main backdrop

    Savages

    6.9

  • Miss Violet main backdrop

    Miss Violet

    7.2

  • The Sandwich Man main backdrop

    The Sandwich Man

    6.9

  • Red Path main backdrop

    Red Path

    0.0

  • Sinners main backdrop

    Sinners

    7.4

  • Les Indésirables main backdrop

    Les Indésirables

    6.2

  • And Their Children After Them main backdrop

    And Their Children After Them

    6.7

  • Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood main backdrop

    Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood

    7.0

  • The Monk and the Gun main backdrop

    The Monk and the Gun

    7.3

  • Marching Band main backdrop

    Marching Band

    7.4

  • The Beat That My Heart Skipped main backdrop

    The Beat That My Heart Skipped

    6.9

  • Sanjuro main backdrop

    Sanjuro

    7.9

  • A Woman Under the Influence main backdrop

    A Woman Under the Influence

    7.8

  • Bird main backdrop

    Bird

    7.2

  • Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person main backdrop

    Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person

    7.4

Status
Released
Original Language
French
Budget
--
Revenue
$4,286,828.00
Keywords
based on novel or bookholocaust (shoah)family relationshipsadult animationhistorical drama1940sabandoned babyloss and grief