Joyeux Noel

Truth is stranger than fiction. If the 1914 Christmas Day Truce were not a matter of historical fact you would suppose Hollywood dreamt it up. Although, by their reckoning, the truce would have ended the war with Tom Cruise/Hanks making a stirring speech after taking on the corrupt authorities.

Thankfully this is a European production.

When war was declared in August 1914 there were celebrations throughout Europe. Most believed that the war would be over within months and that the troops would be home for Christmas. Who could foresee that the war would last four years and claim the lives of more than fifteen million people?

But as Christmas arrived in the winter of 1914 it was already clear to the soldiers on the Western Front that this was no adventure. The misery of life in the trenches, the terror of the heavy artillery and the horror of combat is almost impossible for us to comprehend. Yet even in the dehumanising experience of war humanity lingers.

Joyeux Noel follows the experiences of three men entangled in the war. Scottish Priest Father Palmer is not a soldier but he has joined men from his parish in the trenches. German opera singer Nikolaus Sprink is one of thousands conscripted to fight for Germany. French Lieutenant Audebert is a reluctant fighter. As he awaits his orders it is his pregnant wife who occupies his thoughts.

As Christmas approaches Sprink’s lover Anna - a celebrated soprano - arranges for a recital to be held on Christmas Eve near the front line. The concert is for the German gentry and military leaders and Anna conspires to have Sprink removed from his unit to perform with her. After their performance the two secretly return to Sprink’s trench to sing for his fellow soldiers. Their music resonates across no man’s land to the French and Scottish soldiers. And so begins a remarkable truce.

While elements of the film are fictional the essence of the story is true. It was the singing of Christmas carols that sparked the amnesty. Men who had thought themselves entirely different from their enemy were confronted with a common culture that remembered and celebrated the birth of Christ. Both sides realised that they desperately wanted peace. As the men withdrew from their trenches they held a Christmas Eve service, exchanged gifts and buried their dead.

It was an act of treason. Fraternising with the enemy was a crime punishable by death. That the truce was embraced by so many of the soldiers and officers was the only thing that saved them. There were too many men to execute.

For the priest, Palmer it was a divinely inspired incident. But his view that his Lord Jesus would have endorsed such unmilitary goings on did not sit well with his superiors who viewed the war as God-sanctioned.

Emotive, and at times a little overwrought, Joyeux Noel is a heartfelt film. It seeks to remind us that goodness can survive even in the most extreme circumstances.

Understanding the experience of war is something beyond most of us. To be wrenched away from family, to be caught up in the violence and confusion of battle, to have to kill without knowing why - such things are too much to bear. There is more than a hint of the miraculous in the setting aside of arms that took place that Christmas in 1914. 

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