Two years after WWI, a cynical major has been tasked with identifying thousands of fallen French soldiers. He forms a bond with two women who are looking for their missing loved ones. One day, his hierarchy asks him to pick the soldier who will be buried under the grave of the Unknown Warrior.

Director Bertrand Tavernier, who’s won more Césars and festival awards around Europe than we can count, is a master of lush, literary period pieces. This ravishing widescreen epic, avoiding easy sentimentality, is 80s arthouse prestige at its best—a masterpiece, said critic David Thomson!