directed by
Writer(s)
Jean-Louis Schlesser
Nicolas Steil
Nicolas Steil
With
Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet
Marianne Basler
Thierry Van Werveke
Michel Voïta
Carlo Brandt
Marianne Basler
Thierry Van Werveke
Michel Voïta
Carlo Brandt
Technical data
Year: 2009
Language: French, Luxembourgish
Country: Luxembourg, Suisse
Duration: 97 min
Producers: Niolas Steil - Iris Productions
Cab Productions (CH)
Distribution: Iris Productions (Luxembourg)
Albany Films et Aramis (France)
Optium (UK, Irelande, Malte, Gibraltar)
Awards and festivals
Award for Best Decor, Hollywood Reel Independent Film Film Festival - United States - 2011
Award for Best Film, Radar Hamburg International Independent Film Festival - Germany - 2011
Award for Best Film, Los Angeles Underground Film Festival - United States - 2011
Award for Best Director, Los Angeles Underground Film Festival - United States - 2011
Award for Best Photography, Los Angeles Underground Film Festival - United States - 2011
Award for Best Actor for Grégoire Leprince-Ringuet, Los Angeles Underground Film Festival - United States - 2011
Selected at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival - United States - 2011
Nominated at the Lucerne International Film Festival - Switzerland- 2011
Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival - United States - 2011
Radar Hamburg International Film Festival - Germany - 2011
Artivist Film Festival, Hollywood - United States - 2011
Los Angeles Underground Film Festival - United States - 2011
Eurocine Film Festival - Milan, Madrid, Budapest, Brussels - 2011
Bahamas International Film Festival - 2010
African International Film Festival - Nigeria - 2010
American Film Institute Festival, Washington D.C.- United States - 2010
Official Competition at the Festival International Film Regionfun - Katowice - 2010
International Film Festival Cine-Jeune - France - 2010
Luxembourg 1st Film, Berlin - France - 2010
5th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival, San Fransisco - United States - 2010
En Competition au Gyeryong Military Film Festival - Korea - 2010
Festival Européen d'Ukraine, Kiev - Ukraine - 2010
UGC Fête l'Europe - 2010
Asia Tour 2010: Thailand, Indonesia, Malasia, East Timor - 2010
Festival "Days of European Film" de Prague - Czech Republic - 2010
Cinefrance, Festival du Film Francophone de Toronto - Canada - 2010
13th Festival Annuel de l'Union Européenne in Chicago - United States - 2010
Festival de la Francophonie Peking - China - 2010
Cinema Mundi, Brno - Czech Republic - 2010
28th International Festival Teheran - Iran - 2010
Official Competition for the Best Film at the International Festival Palm Springs - United States - 2010
Competition for the 82nd Oscar for Best Foreign Film
Festival des Films du Monde Montréal - Canada - 2009
Pusan International Film Festival - Korea - 2009
Official competition at the Festival du Film Francophone d'Angoulême - France - 2009
Synopsis
Our past sticks with us. Ours, our family’s and our country’s. Without getting to the bottom of it, without digging up the suffering we have buried, evolution is not possible. Wartime slows history down, but for men decisions are accelerated: Collaborate with the enemy, or resist? However, we have to ask ourselves an even more fundamental question: Take on the role of a victim, or try to survive... but at what cost? François, a 21-year-old, is living in a small country that Nazi Germany has just annexed. His father, who collaborates with the fascist regime, forced him to go to German university. But François committed a first act of disobedience: he left this place that preached racial hatred. Now he is facing a Cornelian choice: to become forcibly enrolled and leave for the Russian front to fight the Allies or to become a draft dodger, buried alive in the cold and damp mines for months on end without seeing the light of day, the only hope being the Liberation. « Draft dodgers » is a grasping psychological drama that makes us experience the path of a young man who is depersonalized by a heavy family history, but will manage to find himself at the cost of his own life.
