A Very Long Engagement

The director and star of Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Audrey Tautou) reunite for this startling adaptation of Sebastian Japrisot’s novel. Un long dimanche de fiançailles, to give the film its domestic title, takes place in France towards the end of WW1 and follows the moving and poignant journey of a girl who’s determined to find her lost fiancée. She discovers he was one of five court martialed soldiers sentenced to be abandoned in no-man’s land to be killed by enemy artillery fire. But there is more to the story than meets the eye and as the film charts the girl’s progress, so we learn about the folly of war and the nobility of the human spirit.