The Cannes Film Festival has announced the addition of two international films to its competition lineup: Michel Hazanavicius’ animated feature “The Most Precious of Cargoes” and Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig.”
“The Most Precious of Cargoes” is an auteur-driven film adapted from Jean-Claude Grumberg’s novel of the same name. Set during World War II against the backdrop of the Holocaust, it will be the first animated feature to compete in the festival since Ari Folman’s “Waltz With Bashir” in 2008.
The film follows the intertwined fate of a Jewish family, including newborn twins, who is arrested in Paris and deported to Auschwitz, with that of a poor and childless woodcutter couple living in the depths of a Polish forest. While on a train to the death camp, the young father puts one of his twins in a package and throws him out of the train, into the snow. The lonely woodcutter wife discovers the child she was waiting for so fervently in the package.
Mohammad Rasoulof’s “The Seed of the Sacred Fig” remains shrouded in secrecy, with its plot details under wraps. Rasoulof has faced government censorship in Iran and was prevented from attending last year’s Cannes jury due to travel restrictions.
These additions join a stellar lineup of iconic filmmakers competing at Cannes, including Francis Ford Coppola with “Megalopolis” starring Adam Driver, George Miller with “Furiosa” starring Anya Taylor-Joy, as well as George Lucas who will receive an honorary Palme d’Or. The 77th edition runs May 15-25.
