Box Office: The Red Collar by Jean Becker

In a small town, overwhelmed by the summer heat in 1919, a war hero is held prisoner at the back of a deserted barracks.

In front of the door, his battered dog barks day and night.

Not far from there, in the countryside, a young woman worn out by farm work, yet too educated to be a simple peasant, waits and hopes.

The judge who arrives to unravel the matter is an aristocrat whose principles have been shaken by the war. Three characters, and, among them, a dog, who holds the key to the drama…

A mystery that a military judge (François Cluzet) must solve by interrogating the soldier (Nicolas Duvauchelle).

Despite the formidable actors, this adaptation of Jean-Christophe Rufin’s novel is diluted in flashbacks, much like the discourse on the horror of war, which remains somewhat conventional.

Full of poetry and life, this short narrative, of dazzling simplicity, is also a great novel about fidelity.