What does the First World War look like when the story is driven not by battles, but by loss, hope and unanswered questions?

In this episode of Oh! What a Lovely Podcast, we turn to A Very Long Engagement, Jean Pierre Jeunet's 2004 French film set during and after the First World War. The story centres on Mathilde, a young woman who refuses to accept that her fiancé has died after being condemned by a French military tribunal and sent into No Man's Land.

As Mathilde begins her own investigation, the film moves between the violence of the trenches and the fragile hopes of life on the home front. Through a complex and shifting narrative, A Very Long Engagement reveals how chance, cruelty and survival shaped the fate of a group of soldiers caught up in the war.

Links: A Very Long Engagement, Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet (2004) Amilie, Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet (2001) Alien Resurrection, Dir. Jean-Pierre Jeunet (1997) Un long dimanche de fiançailles, Sébastien Japrisot (1991) Paths of Glory, Dir. Stanley Kubrick (1957)