CRITICAL – Crowned at the last Annecy animation festival, this rare film, produced in oil paint on glass plate, amazes by its beauty and delicacy. Co-written with novelist Marie Desplechin, this fairy tale will have taken fifteen years to reach our screens.
It’s the kind of film that you don’t come out of unscathed. Directed by Florence Miaihle, Crossing is an extraordinary animated film that has patiently bided its time to reveal its delicate beauty.
Read alsoAnnecy Festival: Crossing by Florence Miailhe ignites the public
A film about exile, this timeless fable tells the fate of two children thrown on the roads of exodus.
After witnessing the fire in their village, Kyona and her younger brother Adriel face uprooting and its procession of hardships.
During an initiatory journey that will take them from childhood to adolescence, they go through many trials, both fantastic, and very real to reach their destination… freedom.
As beautiful as it is unique, Crossing is above all a unique work conceived on a glass plate, a method of painting animated directly under the camera which gives the viewer the impression that the drawing is being made live before his eyes.
The feature film was designed on glass plate, a painting method that comes to life directly under the camera, which is still quite rare in the world of animation these days. The great films which highlight this technique, which is as artisanal as it is poetic, often come from short films such as The street (1976) directed by the Canadian Caroline Leaf, or The old Man and the Sea (1999) by Russian director Alexander Petrov.
If the plot of the film is harsh, it is treated without Manichaeism. In this parade of adults exploiting the distress of little migrants, a few solid and benevolent characters always give a glimpse of hope. And the finale lets glimpse a corner of blue sky …
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