Le collier rouge (2018)

In the summer of 1919, military judge Lantier is sent to an empty military barracks in a small town in Berry to question Jacques Morlac, a First World War hero being held prisoner. Decorated with the Legion of Honour for his exploits at the front, he is nevertheless imprisoned for having brought dishonour on the nation. Outside his cell, his faithful dog Guillaume, who has accompanied him on all his travels, barks day and night. Morlac tells Commandant Lantier about his life: his enlistment in the First World War and his experience of the war, from Champagne to Salonika with the Army of the Orient, from the front to fraternisation in the trenches to the sound of “The Internationale,” and finally to his arrest on Bastille Day, when he causes a scandal. As a result, he faces a heavy sentence. The interrogations with the accused turn into conversations, and Commandant-Magistrate Lantier du Grez, an austere aristocrat marked by the conflict, is tasked with deciding his fate. He investigates by questioning Valentine, Morlac’s partner, an educated peasant woman who hopes for his release, as well as the villagers, who may be able to provide clues that will unravel the mystery. The mystery is reconstructed through flashbacks.