Les Milles (1995)

In [year unspecified], Germans—including Jews, Communists, and opponents of Nazism who had taken refuge in France—are interned at the Les Milles camp, near Aix-en-Provence. Reserve Captain Perrochon, a veteran who was gassed during the First World War, is the camp’s commandant. He runs it with an iron hand, assisted by active-duty Captain Moinard. Mary-Jane Cooper, an American journalist, questions Perrochon. Gradually, he realizes that many of the prisoners fled the Nazi regime, among them eminent artists and scientists, often Jewish. They are worried about the German advance. Tensions among the prisoners are high. The staff headquarters in Marseille is indifferent, overwhelmed, and ineffectual. When the Germans’ arrival is announced, following the defeat, Perrochon cannot bring himself to hand the Jewish or anti-Nazi prisoners over to them. He secretly charters a train to evacuate volunteers to Bayonne, where a ship is waiting to take them to Casablanca. Commanded by Moinard and assisted by Lieutenant Boisset, a translator, the train convoy has less than fifty hours to make a journey made perilous by the defeat. It fails to reach Bayonne, as the arrival of German troops causes disorder. Some prisoners escape, either through Spain or through Portugal. Perrochon is first arrested by his superior, who then lets him escape.