MERRY CHRSTMAS (JOYEUX NOËL) European Film Showcase

Writer/director Christian Carion (THE GIRL FROM PARIS) has fashioned a truly pan-European, multi-lingual triumph in MERRY CHRISTMAS, an exquisite re-telling of a wartime tale that has become legendary as a symbol of how shared humanity trumps duty-even in the face of high treason.

War broke out in the lull of summer 1914, pulling millions of men into its wake. Men across Europe were giddy about the prospect of going to war, with British and French troops allied against Germany. But by that winter, on the bitterly cold field of battle, the grim realization that the war could drag on for months-or even years – had begun to set in. And then, on Christmas Eve, something momentous happened. With rifles left in trenches and candles in hand, weary troops from the Scottish, German and French fronts met their enemy in the middle to shake hands, share cigarettes and wish each other a Merry Christmas.

France’s official Oscar® submission, MERRY CHRISTMAS is a sweeping period drama that creates a tapestry of conflicted characters from all sides of the Great War, each pulled from their civilian lives to confront a faceless enemy huddled in a trench a few hundred feet away.