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A film that goes beyond any boundaries and hatred, an extraordinary fresco of how humanity has been able to make its way even in war. Joyeux Noël tells us about the Christmas truce of 1914, the year in which everything stopped and the soldiers of the various sides exchanged gifts.
Inspired by a real event, the film tells a real Christmas fairy tale. On the front of World War I on Christmas Eve 1914, the soldiers encamped behind the French, Scottish and German trenches suddenly decide to lay down their arms and exchange greetings, cigarettes, chocolate and warm handshakes. This event will upset the lives of four characters: a Scottish shepherd, a French lieutenant, a German tenor and a Danish soprano …
Humanity in spite of everything
Joyeux Noël is a film that remains impressed and that, inevitably, will forever condition those who watch it. A story that shows us humanity in its simplest and purest meaning. None of the protagonists performs absolutely incredible acts, but they become such because of the circumstances: there is nothing more human than wanting to celebrate a party together, eat together and be happy. The courage of these men, however, lies in wanting to do it in spite of everything.
The thing that strikes then is the naturalness with which it all happened. In fact, no one had been authorized to do something similar, indeed, a Christmas truce proposed by the Pope had recently been rejected. Those men chose to risk desertion in order to celebrate peace among their own kind, leading to such a paradoxical and wonderful situation: peace in the trenches. A colorful note in such a terrible war.
The return home, guilty of having behaved like human beings, was also particularly significant, the soldiers were all reprimanded by their superiors for their behavior in the trenches. Several were moved to distant borders precisely to prevent similar events from happening again, a clear choice for those who want peace in Europe.
I find that 1914 was paradoxically the most beautiful Christmas in history, the one in which the concept of brotherhood between men was really seen. Not all those present were Christians, but the spirit was unique and it was what pushes him to suspend everything, dedicating time to brotherhood and peace, the true objective of the War. Joyeux Noël, the film that most of all shows us an essential truth: we are all men, with the same fears and the same desires. Do wars still make sense after this film?