Natalia (1988)

Natalia, who comes from a Polish Jewish family that emigrated to France, wants to pursue a career as an actress. During the Second World War, using false papers, she continues that career in cinema. She is 18, and the German occupation concerns her less than the role she has just landed. She acts in a film being made by director Paul Langlade, an adaptation of Mademoiselle de Maupin, financed by a company controlled by the Germans. During the filming, she is arrested and deported. When she returns, she is welcomed by the film’s director, who feels guilty for having finished the film he began with her without her. But those memories have become entirely foreign to her. They no longer matter to her. She is not interested in finding out who denounced her, and she also refuses to cooperate with the film-industry purging commission; she can no longer act. She returns to the apartment her family lived in, which she had left at the time to pursue her passion for cinema.