Please...
Make way.
You were wonderful.
I'm Jewish. Christmas means nothing to me.
But I'll never forget tonight.
Thank you.
So what about the young lady?
Yes, I wanted to ask you.
Could she spend the night in your shelter?
I meant: When is she leaving?
Tomorrow morning.
Fine.
Alas, you cannot sleep in my shelter.
I have company.
A big rat, for 3 days now, but I'll get him in the end.
We'll find a solution. Good night, Lieutenant.
Good night.
Don't worry, Miss. I'll find you a safe place.
Thanks, Jorg.
That'll do with the flares!
Merry Christmas.
Oskar!
Listen.
Someone's digging out there.
Mines!
Those damn Scots are digging a mine sap!
They'll fill it with explosives and blow us sky high.
No, they're not digging any sap.
They are, I tell you!
You just got too pally with them last night.
Yeah?
Look who's talking!
Look!
Get back down!
Down!
Ponchel!
Bring your coffee!
Thanks, Ponchel.
You can leave us now.
GOD IS WITH US
Can you come, Father?
In a few days, their families,
their wives,
will receive the terrible news...
What we'd rather not think about.
For them, nothing will ever be the same again.
You too,
one day they'll cover you and dump you in a hole.
Let us go, while there's still time.
I have my pass, Holland is not far.
It is at peace, we'd have a future.
Impossible! That'd be to desert.
It's not desertion, it's staying together.
I'm a soldier.
Like all the others.
I have duties, like everyone here.
Holland is quite a way. We'd get caught.
Even with your pass.
There's another solution.
The French border is 100 m away. We only have to cross it.
I've made tea. Perhaps you'd like some.
Come.
By the way...
The others asked me to give you these letters.
We don't trust the military post
and as you're going back to Berlin, we thought...
Sure.
Come on, Morallec!
Go for it!
Looks like trouble for the Jerries.
I heard last night, about your wife...
If you like...
I can get a letter through to her.
Why would you do that?
If you got caught...
One letter won't stop us winning the war!
And anyhow...
when we'll have taken Paris, and it's over,
you can invite us for a drink in Rue Vavin.
You don't have to invade Paris to drop round for a drink.
How many cartridges have you to fire per day?
How many?
Ah, eight!
And you?
Seven?
Seven and eight.
Us, five! Doesn't surprise me!
Still here?
Weren't they sending a car?
We waited, but no one came for her.
I guess the party dragged on at HQ
they're not awake yet.
HQ called me 5 minutes ago.
They told me you'd vanished.
They thought you'd deserted, Sprink.
I told them you were here with Miss Sorensen,
that you came to sing for your comrades.
That really impressed them!
I was asked to keep an eye on you till they arrive.
Miss Sorensen will return to Berlin
and you will be put under arrest.
Two weeks.
For disobedience on the front.
Disobedience?
I'm not sure I understand?
So what's the plan for tomorrow?
A little football match
and an aperitif with those across the way?
Or will you shoot them like rabbits
having shared champagne?
Well, Lieutenant?
All that is now meaningless.
To die tomorrow is even more absurd than yesterday.
That'll do, Sprink!
Any coffee left?
Felix!
Damn that cat!
Here, Nestor!
What're you doing here?
We said each to their own camp.
I know, but...
Our artillery will shell you in 10 minutes.
So I suggest
you come shelter in my trench.
Not a word, Sprink!
Bull's-eye!
Sorry.
Damn! Have to rebuild it all over!
By the way...
That letter for my wife...
This time, we leave it at that.
It was nice knowing you.
Perhaps, in other circumstances,
we could have...
Perhaps...
Yet maybe a drink in Rue Vavin, as a tourist!
That would be "smashing"! Is that how you say?
Your French beats my German.
No merit in that. Your wife is not German.
Well...
Good luck.
You too.
Lieutenant,
I managed earlier to recce their machine guns.
All there.
Jorg...
What are you doing here?
We want you to take us prisoner.
Prisoner?
That's not possible!
How do I explain your presence to my superiors?
I can't do that!
Go back to your trenches, playtime's over.
Sir,
if we return to the German side they'll separate us.
Put us in whatever jail you like, but let us be together,
I beg of you.
- Couturier. - Yes, Sir?
Take these two to the rear, to the village.
They're prisoners.
Put them in the schoolroom, I'll bunk elsewhere.
And stay with them, we're back tomorrow.
Lieutenant!
Can you give these to the Red Cross? It's important.
Ponchel!
Where's Ponchel? Been calling him for the past hour.
Said he was going for nosh, Sir.
Nosh?
Dearest, I cling to your memory,
like a climber to his rope,
so not to fall...
The poor guy died between our lines...
Let President Poincare come take Lorraine himself
for all I care!
Try as we did, before we knew it, they'd scored six!
They admitted later that most of them
play together in a Munich club called Bayern...
Never will I forget her voice in the night...
I stayed in my trench, in peace.
Drink with those bastards? I'd rather die!
Better trenches, must admit...
The Scots photographer promised us pictures at New Year's.
Be a chance to get back together...
A Bavarian gave me his address, to visit when it's over...
We and the British decided to accept the Krauts' invitation.
We'll go spend New Year's Eve with them.
We'll sing that song the Scots taught us.
And above all, drink to the health of all those bastards,
who sitting pretty, sent us here to slug it out!
No, stay here!
What're you doing?
Come back!
Be silly to die disguised as a German, eh Sir?
What the devil were you doing?
I had a German help me...
Saw my mother.
We drank a coffee, just like before.
You have a son.
Henri, his name is...
How did you let yourself...
If you came to preach, leave now!
Don't you realize the gravity of this?
It's high treason!
Punishable by death.
Only, we can't execute 200 men.
That's all that saves you.
Not counting all the other cases of fraternization reported since.
If public opinion hears of this...
- Have no fear, none here will tell. - I hope not!
Who'd want to!
Want to?
The men involved feel no shame.
If they won't tell, it's because none would believe or understand.
Carousing with the enemy while the country's partly occupied!
The country?
What does it know of what we suffer here?
Of what we do, without complaint?
Let me tell you,
I felt closer to the Germans than those who cry "Kill the Krauts!"
Before their stuffed turkey!
You're talking nonsense.
No, you're just not living the same war as me.
As those across the way.
You and your men will rejoin the Verdun sector.
You're right about one thing.
I don't understand this war.
My corps was the cavalry.
You should've made a career of it, like I said.
Today, I'm asked to fight a war where the shovel outweighs the rifle.
In which people swap addresses with the enemy,
to meet when it's all over...
Plus the cat we found with a note from the Germans:
"Good luck, comrades!"
I was ordered to arrest the cat for high treason...
Until further notice.
You're a grandfather, Dad.
His name is Henri.
What are you on about?
How do you know that?
You wouldn't understand.
Henri?
Not bad.
Henri Audebert!
Let's try and survive this war for him.
Chin up.
Be seated!
In two days' time
you will be in East-Prussia
to take part in an offensive against the Russian army.
I hope you'll show pugnacity in the face of the enemy.
This train will cross the fatherland,
but it won't be possible for you to see your families.
Why?
I think you can guess.
Long live Kaiser Wilhelm!
Long live the Kaiser!
They hand it out to just anybody!
This film is dedicated to the soldiers who fraternized
on Christmas 1914 in several places on the front.
Subtitles: Peter Leonard
This film is inspired of real historical events.
All resemblance to people living or dead
is purely coincidental and independent of the will of the author.