‘The Red Turtle’, directed by Michaël Dudok de Wit in 2016, is a French animated fantasy. A man is shipwrecked on an island. He finds wood and makes a raft to escape, but his raft is destroyed by a creature in the sea. After this happens a number of times, the man discovers the creature is a red turtle. In revenge, when the turtle is on the beach, the man stands it by turning it onto its back. The turtle dies and, in remorse, the man dreams that the turtle has transmogrified into a woman. The film then follows the life of the man from falling in love with the women, having a child and then finally dying on the island. It’s a rich and beautifully presented film that slips in and out of a dreamlike state. Dudok de Wit made the film in liaison with Studio Ghibli and it is easy to easy the humanist and mythological influences of the Japanese studio on his animation. The film is played on a small canvas with a small cast of characters (only one of whom is real) and no dialogue, and yet it contains more nuance and a greater depth than most other films. Dudok de Wit presents the life of the man, but his focus is also on the natural environment and the details of the ecology of the island. There is an almost fractal feeling to both his preoccupation with insects and animals and to his forensic dissection of the life of a man.

Would I recommend it? Yes – it’s a profound and intense film that is deceptively complex and layered. It is also beautifully drawn and immersive.