La tortue rouge (or) The Red Turtle (Others, 2016)

The film has no dialogues and relies on the sounds of water, wind and birds and the occasional strains of Laurent Perez del Mar’s graceful score. Yet it has this strange quality like any Ghibli film of pulling the viewer into submitting to the magical realism on show.

As ever the animation is exquisite with the scenes in the dark and when the protagonist has hallucinations transporting us into a serene space. The evocative expressions on the faces of the 3 characters, fabulous landscape overlooking the sea, and the tiny gestures the humans make toward one another and the sea creatures that share their island home,have been captured vividly.

The films explores multiple themes of pain, yearning, rage, guilt and love. The fact that the filmmaker Michael Dudok de Wit has been quite successful in conveying all these emotions without dialogues speaks volumes about the making and the staging.

The film has a simple plot and meanders along leisurely. So it requires a good level of patience to sit through and allow oneself to be immersed into the subject.