How Long Is “Joyeux Noel”?

Christian Carion's drama retells the true story of the impromptu Christmas ceasefire of 1914, just five months in to the carnage of the First World War. The narrative begins by setting the scene at the conflict's outbreak: Danish soprano Anna Sörensen's Berlin recital is interrupted with the news and her German lover, the tenor Nikolaus Sprink, is rushed off to enlist; while two Scottish lads are excited at the prospect of escaping their humdrum existence, though their priest is significantly more sanguine about the affair. Then it's straight in to the horrors of the trenches, where French and British troops are often within earshot of their German adversaries - and all are potentially just moments from death. In addition to proposing a genesis for that extraordinary, spontaneous moment of peace and goodwill among men, there are glimpses of the combatants' lives and of the great divide between the ranks. But the film also underlines the near-instant return to slaughter, as well as cold-hearted treatment meted to the lower ranks for their act of insubordination.