COLLABORATIONS

Collaborations. Even today, despite the distance and brevity of this political period - five years - the word still rings like an insult. The period appears as a dark stain on contemporary history, a shame for the men who established and led it, a sinister flaw in society, the effects of which are still being felt today.

But what exactly was collaboration? What made it specific to France? What were its common features across occupied Europe? Who were its inspirers and actors? What damage did it cause to the country? And how did the German occupiers play on the French desire to “collaborate” with them to their own advantage?

While the supporters of collaboration were convinced that this policy would allow France to stand alongside Germany in a new Europe, the German leaders had a completely different vision: France was a defeated country, which Germany would turn into a vassal state after stripping it of all its wealth.
From the outset, there was a total disconnect between the aspirations of one side and the will of the other.

Gabriel Le Bomin's film recreates this opaque period during which tragedy, cynicism, duplicity, sincerity, the grotesque, and cruelty combine in numerous complex and contradictory movements. It is on this gap between the aspirations of some and the inflexible will of others, and in the manipulation that ensues, that the drama of this film is partly built. This is the story of those harsh years, of that unique political, social, and cultural moment. A film constructed entirely from restored, colorized, and soundtracked archive footage, narrated by a great actor.