Philippe LeGuay’s The Story of Annette Zelman is a wrenching, heart-felt drama about the intersection of love and betrayal in Vichy France. Now available on the ChaiFlicks streaming platform, it is based on real events.

During the Nazi occupation from 1940 onward, a Jewish fine arts student named Annette Zelman (Ilona Bachelier) fell in love with Jean Jausion (Vassili Schneider), a Catholic from a conservative, Vichy-leaning family. Their relationship was frowned upon by Jean’s antisemitic parents, Hubert (Laurent Lucas) and Christiane (Julie Gayet), creating a frisson of friction.

France, the first Western European country to grant Jews full civil rights, rescinded its emancipatory measures with the emergence of the pro-German Vichy regime under the leadership of Henri Philippe Petain. As a result, Annette and her family were subjected to an array of discriminatory restrictions that rendered them second-class citizens.

The anti-Jewish edicts in France were not implemented at once, as the film suggests in an early scene. Annette and her fellow classmates, mostly non-Jews, socialize in a cafe, as if nothing is amiss. The focus is on Annette’s brief dalliance with Claude, a dashing young man who tries to seduce her.

Attractive and........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)