Emmanuel Marre's film “Our Salvation” about his great-grandfather in Vichy opens in France

On 30 September the film "Our Salvation" (Notre salut) by the Belgian-French director Emmanuel Marre opened in French cinemas. In May 2026 it won the prize for best screenplay in the main competition at the Cannes Film Festival. Strangely enough, this large-scale political picture appeals to audiences from the left to the far right and provokes no loud disputes, although it touches on many contentious subjects.

The action takes place in September 1940 in Vichy. After the defeat of France in June 1940, the government of Marshal Pétain, which collaborated with Nazi Germany, settled in this spa town. The protagonist, Henri Marre, arrives in Vichy as a ruined 49-year-old engineer. He brings copies of his manifesto "Our Salvation", which he has published at his own expense, and is looking for a place in the new administration. Henri receives a post in the department for combating unemployment and becomes ever more useful to the regime, later taking part in the deportation of Jews.

Henri Marre did in fact exist and, what is more, is the director's great-grandfather, and the idea for the film arose when Emmanuel Marre found the correspondence between his great-grandfather and great-grandmother

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National Museum of Korea director criticised over misattributed work from his own collection

The Metropolitan Museum and the Louvre Prepare “Rembrandt and the Ancients” for New York in 2027 and Paris in 2028

Patriarch Kirill blesses recognition of remains from Oryol cemetery as relics of Athanasius of Oryol

The Ramayana in Hollywood Cinema, from “A Little Princess” to Nitesh Tiwari’s Film