Joyeux Noël

This is a film about the fraternisation that occured between German, British and French soldiers on Christmas in 1914. It tells the story from the point of view of three officers and a few of their men in each force.

It's a nicely constructed film. It does not play down the brutality of the situation, although the section of the front that it concerns is relatively quiet. The quick friendship between the three officers seems a little too neat, but perhaps required to make the film work.

There's a lot of genuinely touching moments, and plenty of humour too (I think my favorite is the cat that lives on the farm that they are fighting over - it gets food from both the French and German lines and during the Christmas 'party' two soldiers argue over who it likes best).

Thoroughly recommended (especially if you have been reading about the battle of Stalingrad, in which the common humanity and decency shown in this film was rather lacking on either side).

Joyeux Noël (IMDB)

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