Les Films Niepce

Prisoners await execution by firing squad when they are captured during the Spanish Civil War in this drama taken from the novella by Jean-Paul Sarte. Pablo is a loyalist jailed after he searches for his brother. An Irish mercenary and a Belgian physician are his cellmates. Flashbacks recall their lives before the war as they spend their last moments on Earth waiting for their date with death.

A sketch of everyday life among people from different social circles in a France torn by the conflict between the modern and the traditional. This documentary is evocative and stark at the same time, and gives a clear expression of which circles have the filmmaker's sympathy.