Anna’s fiancé, Frantz, is killed during trench warfare. When French Veteran Adrien mysteriously shows up in her town, placing flowers on Frantz’s grave, his presence is met with resistance. Anna gradually gets closer to the melancholy man, as she learns of his deep friendship with Frantz.
François Ozon’s relatively free adaptation of Ernst Lubitsch’s 1932 drama Broken Lullaby radically reimagines the story to situate a woman right at its center. Photographed in lush, mostly monochromatic tones, the intensity of this war-time drama never falters, but crescendos to a stunning finale.