Sillons de feu

From traces and impressions left on the sites of the Somme and the ridge of the Chemin des Dames in l'Aisne, the producer brings to light the testimony of men, writers and poets, who lived through the terrible experience of the front line. Their words were silenced by official history after the victory. Blaise Cendrars, Henri Barbusse, Léon Werth, Appolinaire, Teilhard de Chardin all tried in writing to surpass horror and absurdity. Pictures of the Great War are used, sometimes recentred to emphasize certain passages of the commentary and to emphasize the testimony, the extracts from letters, note books, poems or literary works, such as "Le feu" by Henri Barbusse or "La main coupée" by Blaise Cendrars. [...] Some evidence from contemporaries (Father René Courtois speaking of Teilhard de Chardin, the Englishman Michael Caine, a farmer, a school-teacher...) help to keep alive the memory of that terrible war. Christine Micholet.