Synopsis

On Christmas Eve, 1914. A battlefield in the middle of World War I. Father Palmer from the British army tries to lift spirits by playing the bagpipe. His music is answered by Sprink, whose beautiful voice soon soars in reply from the German side. The French army finds itself unable to resist the peaceful atmosphere brought on by the music and as a result, the three nations agree on a truce for Christmas. They soon become friends, sharing food and wine and hailing each other ‘Merry Christmas’ across the front lines. Father Palmer says a mass for all and Anna, Sprink's lover, plaits her voice into the stately hymns. Now, enemies have become friends and the idea of pointing guns at one another seems nearly impossible. What will be the choice, fatherland or friends? *Merry Christmas* is loosely based on *Battles of Flanders and Artois 1914-1918*, a novel by Yves Buffetaut -- a novel which the filmmaker Christian Carion had always been interested in portraying, even before his first feature *The Girl from Paris*. The film focuses on the real-life Christmas miracle of 1914, with fictional touches. Premiered at the non-competition section of the Cannes Film Festival in 2005, *Merry Christmas* garnered enthusiastic responses from audiences by delivering the message of peace. Depicting heartwarming humanism and friendship flowering in the most brutal of surroundings, the film asserts the power of music by showing the brief peace that was accomplished by a single Christmas carol.

Director

Christian Carion

Born in 1963 in northern France, he directed his first feature film, *The Girl from Paris* (1997), a comedy about a woman in her 30s who moves from Paris to the countryside. With the success of this film, he was able to embark on a war film inspired by the book *Battles of Flanders and Artois* that he had previously read. After years of research, combing through a vast amount of war-related materials from Germany, the UK, and France, he completed the project *Merry Christmas*.