A Brilliant Conflict

Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

In this 25 minutes long story taking 2 directors and 2 writers, we are in the countryside, in France under German occupation, during World War II; love between a local girl and an occupying soldier arises.There is affection for nature, tree-lined roads and how light fills the space in their centre till the sky, the murmur of a river's water and foliage under the wind; a tone and language of a traditional tale, with frequent intervention by narrating voices.Pictorial talent is remarkable; we sink into far yet hypnotic light, landscapes seem portraits of dreams, and are spoused to a sorrowful piano that knows when it's time to comment with its melodies and knows when it's time to comment with its silence. Love is true, a faith to embrace which they accept to receive the subsequent embrace of death, never for a moment — while the verdict of the world and its retribution are nearing them — being touched by regret or hesitation. This is an elegy, its essence lying in visual beauty — even tragedy glistens, although with cruelty.