18/05/2026 - CANNES 2026: In a classic film focusing on the essential, Daniel Auteuil shines fresh light on a cruel episode in history where personal ethics collide with State interests

"Put your high-minded principles to one side: we get things done, here", "Show yourselves to be docile, those of you who still have a chance of surviving”, “I’m interested in justice, not the law”, “I’m a civil servant, I know what my sense of duty is." It’s the summer of 1942. We’re in the free zone of France which has been occupied by the Germans, and the Vichy government has decided to show good faith to the occupier by handing over its Jews. As such, the police station in Lyon is tasked with orchestrating arrests, sending people to detention camps, and evaluating potential exceptions to the rule according to 11 criteria carefully detailed in a memo. Such is the real-life story (which resonates with a number of similar situations unfolding in the modern world) which Daniel Auteuil has decided to tell in When the Night Falls, a movie presented in the 79th Cannes Film Festival’s Cannes Première line-up.

"Are you going to argue over all of the names?" Gathered around the large table set up in hut 16 in the Vénissieux internment camp, the so-called “screening” commission - presided over by Gilbert Lesage (Antoine Reinartz), who’s been sent by the police station’s Social Service for Foreigners and who finds himself surrounded by representatives from humanitarian organisations (including L’Amitié chrétienne headed up by Father Glasberg – played by the director himself, La Cimade, etc.) - is a stormy affair. Entrusted with the logistics of this particular operation, police officer Lucien Marchais (Grégory Gadebois) grows increasingly annoyed at what he considers to be obstruction and rule-bending by those who are trying to save as many people as possible (by creating false certificates of all kinds). But time is ticking, both for those under pressure from the government and for those having to wrestle with their conscience. Because "every case is a person"…

Soberly shot in the camp with a handheld camera, When the Night Falls (based on a screenplay penned by Camille Lugan and Daniel Auteuil, thanks to an original idea by Adrien Nussenbaum) unfolds at a steady pace. The quality of the three lead actors (not to mention Luàna Bajrami and Grégoire Colin) and their conflicts masks some slightly underwhelming character development, but their depiction isn’t altogether black and white either (everyone has their reasons). Priority is clearly given to the event itself, and to the edifying moral history lesson it provides, because, in order for 108 children to eventually be saved on 28 August 1942, their parents had to sign agonising relinquishment forms. Thankfully, the tragic atmosphere of the time is conveyed without heavy-handed emotion, focusing instead on the dilemmas and civil disobedience of those individuals who choose to listen to their hearts ("I was afraid, but it would be wrong to leave") rather than heeding the authorities… An indisputably timeless choice.

When the Night Falls was produced by Les Films Velvet alongside Palatio Films, La Smala Productions, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Cinéma, and SND (who are also steering world sales).

(Translated from French)