The Grand Illusion

“If I could only save one film, it would be The Great Chimera”, Orson Welles. A constant on lists of the best films of all time, Jean Renoir's anti-war masterpiece is a tribute to humanity and solidarity.

Synopsis

A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of an aristocratic German officer, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.