Interview: Director Michel Hazanavicius on the sound of silence in The Most Precious Of Cargoes

Silence has become his trademark. Back in 2011, Michel Hazanavicius achieved international fame with his Oscar winning silent movie The Artist and, for his latest film, he ventures into new territory while telling his story with minimal dialogue – and often none at all.

The Most Precious Of Cargoes is the director’s first animated film, one that uses the structure of a traditional fable to bring one of the darkest periods in modern history to a 2020s audience. A poor woodcutter and his wife live in a vast forest during WWII. Life is hard and, without the child the wife longs for, empty and sad. But it changes when, as if in answer to a prayer, she finds a baby in the snow, wrapped in a Jewish prayer shawl. They adopt her as their daughter, despite the woodcutter’s prejudice, and their family is complete – until the child’s secret heritage leaks out and puts everybody’s lives in danger.

MORE: READ OUR REVIEW OF THE FILM HERE

In the exclusive interview below, Hazanavicius explains why the film was always going to be an animation instead of live action and describes his own personal involvement in creating and drawing the characters we see on screen. He also explores the importance of the film’s sound design, from the creation of subtle effects in the opening sequences to the use of silence in some of its most emotionally painful moments. As he observes, silence says so much more than words.

Check out the full interview:

The Most Precious Of Cargoes opens in UK cinemas on April 4th.