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| Zone Libre |
Actor-turned-writer-director Christophe Malavoy has wrought a heartwarming and at times hair-raising portrait of Jewish life in France under the German Occupation.
It is 1942 and a Parisian family has managed to flee Nazi-occupied France to the unoccupied zone. This extended family is a motley crew that arrives at the remote farm of Maury, a French peasant and patriot whose son has been captured by the Germans. His way of fighting back is by protecting this Jewish family, whose members include 11-year-old Henri, his uncle Simon and aunty Léa, their very pregnant sister-in-law Mauricette, as well her mother, the family's ageing matriarch, Mme Schwartz, who speaks only Yiddish.
Danger is all around, but the three generations of refugees from the city must live together as a combined family with their country brethren to avoid detection.
This is an honest and inspiring account of daily life in occupied France where resistance was weighed against the need to put food on the table and keep one's family safe. Based on the celebrated play by Jean-Claude Grumberg (
Les Milles), the film's title (like that of play) is best taken ironically - as Vichy France was of course anything but free.
