Rob Munday

As a parent, instilling essential life skills in your children is crucial, and among them, cultivating compassion stands out as both challenging and paramount. The capacity to empathize with others’ hardships and feel compelled to take action is a rare trait, even among adults. In Paul Mas’ poignant and immersive award-winning short film, Précieux (Precious), compassion, among other themes, is explored from the perspective of a young child struggling to fit in at school.

We’re introduced to Julie, the aforementioned awkward youngster, as she timidly tries to join a playground game, only to be bluntly told, “you’re not playing with us.” It’s clear from this early interaction, and the film’s character design, that Julie is an outsider. Battling with the social dynamics of childhood, she yearns for companionship, but when a new pupil – an autistic child called Emile – enters her classroom, she soon realises that fitting in may require making some challenging decisions.

Julie and Emile share a love of drawing

During an interview at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, Mas revealed his intention with Precious was to create a film tailored for adults, featuring children as the main characters. Aiming to delve into the origins of exclusionary behaviour in the young he was eager to pinpoint that critical “tipping point” where individuals begin to sacrifice parts of their empathy in order to navigate their environment. By focusing his film on a child who understands the pain of being ostracised and exploring how she reacts when she encounters another child facing even greater challenges, Mas has created a complex narrative with a universal message.

The storytelling, however, isn’t the only element of the filmmaking to impress here, with Precious sporting a distinct stop-motion aesthetic which serves to heighten the sense of isolation in Julie’s school life and inject the short with a haunting quality. As mentioned earlier, it’s the character design that truly stands out, with Julie and Emile portrayed through authentic designs, while all the other children looks the same – oversized heads with no hair, their clothes the only way to tell them apart.

A scene at the end where Julie and Emile face questions from their teacher is made more sinister due to the presence of the “other” children outside

By depicting all the other students at the school with identical appearances, Mas introduces a palpable pack mentality to the situations faced by Julie and Emile. This approach fosters empathy with their predicament and may even evoke memories of similar experiences from viewers’ own pasts. It’s this immersive quality and the universal appeal of the storyline that render Precious such a compelling and impactful watch. While its narrative addresses a specific situation, we can all likely relate to moments from childhood where we encountered challenges and may have made mistakes in our decisions.

Hopefully, Precious can also work as a welcome reminder to the importance of compassion in our adult lives.