‘We swept a lot under the carpet’: Vichy regime film hits home in France of 2026

Movie about Nazi-collaborating administration strikes chord during what director calls ‘time of great uncertainty’

It is the story of how a lowly state administrator unthinkingly becomes a cog in the machine of an authoritarian regime, embracing the bureaucracy and logistics of sending people to their deaths – and it is drawing in audiences to French cinemas.

The French film Notre Salut (Our Salvation), with its modern lighting, improvised scenes and anachronistic 1980s Europop soundtrack, is far from the standard historical costume drama about the second world war.