Joyeux Noel

Anna Sorensen (Diane Kruger) helps arrange a recital near the front line where enemy soldiers share Christmas.

Herald rating: ****

If you are after some festive cheer, then Joyeux Noel might not be an obvious film choice - but in a grim kind of way it's one of the more uplifting and heart-warming films on offer this Christmas.

Nominated as France's entry for Best Foreign Film at the 2006 Oscars, Joyeux Noel is based on a real event which took place in Northern France during World War I.

Almost too cheesy to be real - if you didn't know better you'd swear it could only be written for the screen - the story revolves around a magical moment when enemy soldiers come together on Christmas Eve, and for a brief moment, forget about the war.

From their bitterly cold trenches, French, Scottish and German soldiers start to prepare for the few festivities the war allows them. They are drawn together by each other's music and a truce is formed so they can bury their dead, share photos and stories, have a drink to celebrate Christmas.

The story is told from the perspective of many characters, but mostly through volunteer Gordon (Ferns), a Scottish Anglican priest; Nikolaus Sprink (Furmann), a highly regarded tenor from Berlin; and French Lieutenant Audebert (Canet), who is anxiously awaiting news on the birth of his first child.

Apart from some dodgy lip-syncing by Sprink and his lover (Kruger), each performance is perfectly weighed, drawing you into each soldier's experiences and the questions he faces - when will the truce end? What does the rest of the war hold for me?

Even though Joyeux Noel begins as a bleak reminder of the brutality of war and the ghastly consequences for those enduring it, it also turns out to be a charmingly amusing film. The situation is almost farcical as enemies unite and struggle to communicate with each other.

And the overwhelming impression director Carion leaves us with, is that the foreign enemy is not so foreign after all.

CAST: Diane Kruger, Benno Furmann, Guillaume Canet, Alex Ferns, Daniel Bruhl
DIRECTOR: Christian Carion
RUNNING TIME: 116 minutes
RATING: M - Violence and sex scenes
SCREENING: Rialto and Village cinemas