Josep

Beautiful, tender animated feature by French cartoonist Aurel, about Spanish illustrator Josep Bartolí, who fled the Franco regime into France in 1939. In a concentration camp for Spanish refugees, he meets good-hearted gendarme Serge. On different sides of the barbed wire fence, Serge and Josep strike up a friendship.

Valentin is talented at drawing. When he spends time with his cranky grandfather Serge, who is old and tied to his bed, Serge starts telling him about his work guarding a camp for Spanish refugees. In February 1939, half a million of them fled the fascist Franco regime hoping to find shelter in France. The French authorities placed them in concentration camps, where they suffered from hunger, cold and illness.

One of the refugees is Josep from Barcelona. He is an artist, fought in the Spanish Civil War and makes harrowing drawings of life in camp. He misses his fiancé María, who is pregnant. Serge witnesses how Josep and the other refugees are mistreated by his sadistic, xenophobic fellow-gendarmes. He wonders at what point he should stop following orders, and starts thinking of ways to help Josep. Beautiful, fascinating animation by Aurélien Froment, better known as Le Monde cartoonist Aurel.