Film Review
The story is a familiar one - an ordinary Jewish family trying to evade
capture by the Nazis during the Second World War - but in this, his
first directorial offering for the cinema, Christophe Malavoy brings to
it a rare authenticity and level of personal involvement which makes
this tale of survival particularly engaging.
Zone Libre is adapted from a stage
play by the distinguished French playwright, Jean-Claude Grumberg, who
worked with Malavoy on the screenplay for the film. Grumberg has
a long list of screenwriting credits to his name and contributed some
of the dialogue to François Truffaut's
Le
Dernier métro (1980), a similar Occupation-themed
film. Before he turned to directing, Malavoy established himself
as one of France's leading screen actors, working with such talented
filmmakers as Michel Deville (
Péril en la demeure) and
Claude Chabrol (
Le Cri du hibou). Prior
to this film, he directed two films for French television, the most
recent
Ceux qui aiment ne meurent
jamais (2004) being an adaptation of his own novel.
Unlike many screen depictions of the Occupation,
Zone Libre has no pretensions of
being an epic. Rather, it is an intimate character-centric drama
which shows how individuals react to and are affected by the
circumstances of their time. The Jewish family is particularly
convincingly drawn, avoiding the well-worn clichés and
presenting an ordinary collection of people who are weary of their
seemingly endless ordeal yet continually fearful of what may happen if
they fall into the hands of the French police (as well they should
be). Every day is a struggle to get through and the strain
inevitably takes its toll on the relationships between the family
members, who seem to grow further apart as a consequence of being
hemmed in together.
Malavoy is blessed with his choice of actors, who contribute much to
the film's realism and subtle humanity. Jean-Paul Roussillon is
perfectly cast as the solitary but kind-hearted farm owner who risks
his neck to save the Jewish family, whilst Lionel Abelanski gives a
heart-wrenching turn as the man who is driven to compromise on his
family's traditions to save his family from the Germans. Tsilla
Chelton, a distinguished doyenne of French cinema, brings humour and
poignancy to her portrayal of an elderly Yiddish grandmother who
doesn't know what all the fuss is about. Whilst
Zone Libre falls down in a few
areas (the slow motion sequences are used too gratuitously to be effective), it is overall an
impressive piece, one that offers a valuable insight into the
experiences of those trying desperately to avoid the Holocaust and
those who had the heart to help them.
© James Travers 2010
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.
Film Synopsis
During the Second World War, Simon, a French Jew, succeeds in smuggling
his family from Nazi-occupied France into the Free Zone. He
is accompanied by his wife, his sister-in-law, his mother-in-law and
his 11-year-old nephew. In the countryside, the family meets
Maury, a farmer who offers them a place to stay. Maury lives with
his daughter-in-law and grandson, and thinks only of his son, who is
away fighting in the war...
© James Travers
The above content is owned by filmsdefrance.com and must not be copied.