4th Annual Cameron University French Film Festival -Mature Audiences Night

“Released in 2014, “Diplomatie” is a Franco-German historical drama that focuses on the relationship between Dietrich von Choltitz, the German military governor of occupied Paris, and Swedish consul-general Raoul Nordling.

In August 1944, the Allies are marching toward Paris. Hitler gives orders that the French capital should not fall into enemy hands - or if it does, then ‘only as a field of rubble’. Choltitz is assigned to carry out this barbaric act and has mines planted on the Eiffel Tower, in the Louvre and Notre Dame and on the bridges over the Seine. Nordling steals into German headquarters through a secret underground tunnel and there starts a tension-filled game of cat and mouse as he tries to persuade Choltitz to abandon his plan.

In this riveting adaptation of the stage success by Cyril Gély, director Volker Schlöndorff has created a psychologically elaborate game of political manners between two highly contrasting characters. While Choltitz entrenches himself behind his duty to unquestioningly obey all military orders, Nordling tries everything he can to appeal to reason and humanity to prevent the senseless destruction of the beloved ‘City of Light. (Not rated; suitable for mature audiences)