After Barcelona, Spain, fell to Gen. Francisco Franco’s forces in 1939, almost half one million Spaniards fled to France in what is called “La Retirada,” or the retreat. The Catalan illustrator and commerce unionist Josep Bartolí was a type of who left.
His experiences and sketches throughout his detainment in a collection of French internment camps gas the tough grace of “Josep,” a hand-drawn movie that’s the debut function of the French cartoonist often known as Aurel.
A humane camp guard, Serge (voiced by Bruno Solo), throws Bartolí a lifeline, and their bond offers “Josep” its up to date anchor: An aged Serge recounts his recollections to his grandson. Bartolí (Sergi López) endures the starvation of camp life and the abuse of its villainous gendarmes — one guard’s face morphs right into a pig’s snout — however he rallies his spirits with different defiant, bohemian exiles. In a determined episode, Serge even appears to be like for Bartolí’s lacking fiancée, who’s feared lifeless.
Aurel renders the barren, dun-colored camp sequences largely by nonetheless drawings which might be given barely shimmering contours, slightly than prolonged animated motion. Extra vibrant colours bloom after Bartolí — bearing psychological scars — escapes, ending up in Mexico and New York, and will get to vibe with the artist Frida Kahlo (mellifluously voiced by the singer Sílvia Pérez Cruz).
The 74-minute movie leaps amongst time frames with out a lot warning. Often, the display screen erupts into crackling black-and-white pictures drawn immediately from Bartolí’s work — as if torn from the very pages of his sketchbooks. That form of impressionistic outlook is likely to be one of the best lens for understanding the compressed storytelling of this well timed tribute from one cartoonist to a different.
Josep
Not rated. In French and Spanish, with subtitles. Operating time: 1 hour 14 minutes. Watch on Ovid.