The Williams Lake Film Club will show its last film for this season on Tuesday, Dec. 16.
Very befittingly it is called Merry Christmas and will be shown at the Gibraltar Room at 7 p.m. Back doors open at 6:30 p.m.
Academy Award, Golden Globe and BAFTA nominee for Best Foreign Film, Merry Christmas tells the true life story of the spontaneous Christmas Eve truce declared by German, Scottish and French troops in the trenches of the First World War, exactly 100 years ago.
Enemies leave their weapons behind for one night as they band together in brotherhood and forget about the brutalities of war.
This truce was declared against all orders. On Christmas Eve, the German, Scottish and French troops laid down their arms, exchanged gifts, sang carols and played football. It wasn’t long before the men’s livid commanding officers clamped down on all fraternization.
The Germans are represented by Daniel Brühl as a martinet officer, who is deeply suspicious of a liberal conscript private, who is a professional singer in civilian life. He has a passionate relationship with the beautiful Danish soprano Anna Sorensen, played by Diane Krüger, and it is her unofficial, morale-raising visit to the front which is imagined to be the spark that ignites the sensational outbreak of peace. The French are led by Audebert (Guillaume Canet), a decent man heartsick of war. A Sottish Red Cross stretcher-bearer and unofficial padre, played by Gary Lewis Palmer, conducts an impromptu service in no-man’s-land that unites the soldiers of three Christian nations. And the sound of Stille Nacht floating across the trenches is a sound you probably will never forget.
The site of this Christmas truce is in Saint-Yves (Saint-Yvon-Ploegsteert in Belgium) where plans are being made by German and Scottish groups to create a soccer field to commemorate that very special occasion. And to organize soccer games with German, Scottish and French teams.
Alfred Anderson, the last survivor of the Christmas Truce of 1914 died Nov. 21, 2005 at a nursing home in his native Scotland. He was 109 years old. Lest we forget.
We also will show the second instalment of short films by Oliver Berger and Morgan Day. This film is about five minutes in length and will take us to The Troll Ski Resort.
As this is the last film of this season, we once again would like to ask you for donations for the Food Bank. This has become an annual tradition just as we would like to ask you to bring some of your homemade Christmas baking to share with all of us at our little get-together after the films.
This would be truly appreciated. We also will have hot mulled apple cider for your enjoyment.
Regular admission is $9, for members $8, and $6 for seniors (65+) and students, TRU and HS. Languages spoken are German, French, English, and Latin, just as it happened to be at that time of the event in 1914.
The film has English subtitles, running time is 115 min.; Rating: 13+; Genre: drama, romance.