Key facts
- The French film 'Notre Salut' (Our Salvation) focuses on ordinary people participating in the Vichy regime.
- The film explores the bureaucracy involved in the deportation of 76,000 Jewish people.
- Director Emmanuel Marre was inspired by family letters from his great-grandfather, a Vichy administrator.
- The film has resonated with young audiences in France.
- Historians note the film's relevance to contemporary French unease and the rise of the far-right.
The French film 'Notre Salut' (Our Salvation), which explores the daily lives of individuals involved in the Vichy regime's collaboration with the Nazis, is attracting significant attention in French cinemas, particularly among young audiences. The film, also known by its English title 'A Man of His Time', focuses on the bureaucratic aspects of the regime's participation in the deportation of 76,000 Jewish people to concentration camps.
Inspired by family letters discovered by director Emmanuel Marre, which shed light on his great-grandfather Henri Marre's role as an administrator, the film eschews well-known historical figures for a focus on ordinary people. Historian Marc Olivier Baruch noted that the film highlights how history is made by "second-players, the grassroots who act on the ground," and that the administrator character "never chooses to reflect on things or look at what he’s doing."
Film critics and historians suggest the film's resonance with contemporary audiences stems from a period of "great uncertainty" and "lack of confidence among French people in their elites and in their state." The Vichy regime, led by Marshal Philippe Pétain, represents a significant period of far-right power in France, making its history relevant to current political discussions. Historian Henry Rousso commented that while the National Rally is not fascism, understanding this history helps comprehend its lineage and the gradual erosion of democratic values.
Marre, who won the best screenplay prize at the 2026 Cannes film festival for the film, stated that the discovery of his great-grandfather's letters prompted him to "prise open those drawers" of France's "phantom memory of the collaboration," aiming for a nuanced look at the motivations behind collaboration and resistance.