It’s ironic that “art” in the traditional sense (that is, sculptures, paintings and the like) is so infrequently glimpsed through the lens of today’s predominate mass art form, cinema. Hiroshima No Pika remedies that, tackling its serious subject matter with a grace, sensitivity and beauty. Based on an award-winning children’s book by Japanese artist Toshi Maruki and her husband Iri, and narrated by Susan Sarandon, the short film uses arresting watercolor illustrations to tell the story of a young girl and her family who survive through the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

While the horrific reality of the events of August 6, 1945 serve as the backdrop, it’s Maruki’s eye for lyrical detail — both dark and pained, and hopeful — that articulates the humanity of the event, and makes a stirring and even family-friendly case for its future avoidance at all costs. Pablo Picasso’s “Guernica” is a good stylistic leaping off point of comparison, though Maruki’s compositions exhibit a fluidity that exemplifies her training and familiarity with Western oil painting. Director Noriaki Tsuchimoto’s camera ducks and pushes in on Maruki’s art, and the narration — while not overly graphic — doesn’t pull many punches. It paints a clear, succinct view of the city and its seven rivers, and the terrible flash that pierced the morning sky upon impact; moving, too, are images of children running to the water with their eyes fused shut. Clocking in at 25 minutes, Hiroshima No Pika is a mere morsel, but a powerful and affecting one.

Any reflection of the film must begin with the fact that both Toshi Maruki and her husband survived the bombing, and paint all their work from firsthand memories of its effect and aftermath. Blended reds and grays dance around the edges, invading the safety and sanctity of the thin white canvases on which they work and creating a deep sense of unease and a disquieting rumination on mortality. It goes without saying that the magnitude of human suffering in the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and, two days later, Nagasaki is inherently distressing, but Hiroshima No Pika creates its own powerfully sustainable expression of universally relatable personal grief.

DVD release extras are considerable, starting with the inclusion of the jointly billed, Academy Award-nominated 1986 documentary Hellfire, from director John Junkerman (Power and Terror: Noam Chomsky in Our Times) and executive producer John Dower. A 58-minute look at the Marukis and their heralded Hiroshima murals, this is an invaluable companion piece to Hiroshima No Pika, offering as it does intimate footage of the pair at work and them meeting with local press to discuss their memories of the bombing and their lives’ work. Other supplemental material includes a photo gallery which viewers can toggle through, biographies of both subjects and filmmakers, and a list of activist-oriented web sites that can point you in the right direction when you are suitably roused to action. To purchase the movie via Amazon, click here. B (Movie) B (Disc)