Based on extraordinary true events, the masterful and gripping new drama from César-winning writer/director Xavier Giannoli (Lost Illusions, The Singer) chronicles the complex ethical and moral challenges experienced by journalist Jean Luchaire and his daughter Corinne during France’s occupation by Germany in WWII.
Late-1930s Europe: fervent pacifist Luchaire (Academy Award®-winner Jean Dujardin) finds an ally in young German Francophile Otto Abetz (August Diehl, A Hidden Life). Together they champion peace and rapprochement between their nations in the uneasy calm after the Great War. Meanwhile, Jean’s glamourous daughter Corinne (Nastya Golubeva) is making waves as a rising movie star, hailed as the “French Greta Garbo”.
By 1940, however, the Nazi invasion of Paris forces stark choices. Jean aligns with German authorities, and through his newspaper Les Nouveaux Temps rises becomes a powerful press baron - embracing collaboration as a path to influence and survival. His trajectory intertwines with that of Otto’s, now the Reich ambassador, whose support helps cement his position inside the occupiers’ elite. Through her connection to the two, Corinne is drawn into an intoxicating yet perilous world of embassy parties, salons, and propaganda cinema that both protects and endangers her…
Working with a grand canvas, Giannoli’s sweeping epic – spectacularly mounted with a budget of over €30 million - probes ambition, responsibility, and the personal cost of power’s seductions, revealing how children are destined to inherit the consequences of their parents’ actions. Rich with contemporary resonances, RAYS AND SHADOWS is cinema of the highest calibre, and destined to be considered one of the most important films of the year.