Q&A with Xavier Beauvois

A quietly affecting human drama of love, loss, and resilience unfolds against the backdrop of World War I in the new film from Of Gods and Men director Xavier Beauvois. France, 1916: due to a shortage of men, teenage orphan Francine (Iris Bry) is hired to work on the farm of the hardened Hortense (Nathalie Baye) and her loitering daughter Solange (Laura Smet). When a romance forms between Francine and Hortense’s son Georges (Cyril Descours), a soldier on leave from the frontlines, their love is tested not only by the war but also by the complex social fabric of the community. Composed in painterly images bathed in natural light, in moments reminiscent of Maurice Pialat’s Van Gogh, this intimate epic traces the journey of a young woman weathering turbulent times—and refusing to be defeated. A Music Box Films release. U.S. Premiere