Joyeux Noel

An account of the truce on the front at Christmas 1914. The first winter of the war. French, Scottish and German units are in trenches a hundred metres apart. On Christmas night a German soldier begins to sing, bagpipes answer from the opposite trench, and the soldiers meet in no man's land. What follows is an exchange of gifts, a shared service, a football match and a common permission to bury the dead. This really happened, and was repeated at different points along the front. When the commands learned of it their response was harsh; the units that joined the truce were broken up and sent to other fronts. The film covers that outcome too. The narrative runs in three languages and the film puts no side above another. Christian Carion directed. Diane Kruger plays an opera singer, Benno Fürmann the tenor with her and Guillaume Canet the French lieutenant. It was Oscar-nominated for foreign film. An affecting production for anyone who likes war films and narratives drawn from record. For a viewer looking for restraint, the film steers feeling openly and some scenes look over-arranged.