BFF: A Man of His Time 
Swann Arlaud (Anatomy of A Fall) gives an effectively inexplicit performance as a man making his way up the career ladder of the Vichy government, the regime in occupied France that collaborated with the Nazis during World War II.
Arriving in 1940 with his self-published manifesto, Notre Salut, Henri Marre attempts to ingratiate himself with the new Vichy elite, eventually gaining a comfortable position in middle-management. Based on letters written by the director’s own great-grandfather, the film is a broadened out imagining of a man about whom little is known.
A vague and ambiguous anti-hero, Henri drifts along with the status quo as the war continues and the atmosphere within his bureaucratic office begins to shift. This is a perspective of the Second World War rarely centred in cinema, offering a truly relevant allegory for the political climate of our current age.
Screening as part of Belfast Film Festival. Find out more about the festival programme here.
