The Rays and Shadows (Les Rayons et les Ombres)

It was here, your sweater.

People put them away any old how.

I'll help you.

They played together yesterday.

My name is Eva.

I live on the third floor of building B.

Thank you.

Come on, let's go buy a snack.

Hey.

So, are we getting some sun?

You think we don't recognize you?

Answer.

- You're not very polite. - That's your bitch face.

You piece of trash.

Look at this, bitch.

What are you doing? Stop!

Help!

Stop it now!

- Trash! - ¡Basta!

Shut up!

Ma'am, are you okay?

Stop!

Ma'am, come sit down.

Do you want me to call someone?

Are you alright, ma'am?

They're gone, I couldn't do anything.

Are you alright, ma'am?

Do you know her? She's my neighbor.

You need to file a report.

You need to go to the police. Yes.

Are you feeling better?

Yes, thank you.

Is anyone at your place? No.

You're not going to stay alone.

Let's go to my place. We'll inform the police later.

No, not the police.

Why? Because not the police.

Brigitte, go play with them.

Come. I don't want to bother you.

You're not bothering me, come.

Would you like something to drink?

I don't feel very well.

Do you want to rest a bit? I'll take care of the little one.

Don't worry.

It's not the first time I've been attacked.

Why are you attacked?

Because people don't know anything.

What's your name?

Corinne.

Does she live in our building? Yes.

How long has she been sleeping? It's been 4 hours.

She doesn't want to go to the police.

And she told me it had already happened to her.

Her name is Luchaire.

Corinne Luchaire.

I'm sorry.

Are you feeling better?

I'm taking medication, so I...

The little one is fine. I gave her dinner.

This is my husband.

Good evening.

I'm going home. Thank you very much. Corinne.

Lorenzo.

We arrived from Santiago last year. Chile.

Do you work with children?

Yes.

I'm a speech therapist at Saint-Joseph Hospital.

I treat children who have been...

exposed to bombings during the war.

We're recording.

We're drawing.

Thank you.

This is the one I had before.

It works very well.

You plug it in.

Don't talk too close to the microphone, or it will distort.

You have 2 hours of tape. I could give you more.

Around what time do you think you'll pick up the little one?

I can give her dinner.

Yes, okay.

A few days ago,

my father was killed.

There was a trial. A judgment.

And he was executed.

I'd like to tell how we got here.

I'll try to find the words.

I won't manage to write it all down. I wasn't taught.

I'll get the dates wrong. I know it.

Yet, it's important to understand what happened.

It explains everything, the dates.

Even if it explains nothing, it explains everything.

I remember the water was black.

And I was scared.

There was a lake,

mountains, a forest.

It was on the border between France and Germany.

Just after the Great War.

I ask you to welcome

our friend Jean Luchaire.

Hello everyone. Guten Morgen.

A few years ago, someone rang my doorbell one morning.

And I opened it to a man

who offered me a firm and friendly handshake.

He spoke impeccable French, with almost no accent.

He, the drawing professor from Karlsruhe,

and I, the Parisian journalist.

Please welcome our friend Otto Abetz!

Thank you to him.

He had liked our articles on Franco-German reconciliation

and defended the same ideas in his country as we did.

We belonged to no political party

and still share today the same idealism.

Preserving peace in a Europe focused on humanism

and progress.

Progress, yes!

I speak of it with such emotion and humility

because there are veterans here from both countries.

They lived through the hell of the trenches. The barbarity.

And I swore something to myself then.

Never again.

Never again!

Because war solves nothing.

It only prepares the next one.

At the table, is my granddaughter, Corinne.

I swear to her,

she will not grow up in a Europe still and always torn apart

by armed conflicts between peoples.

I would like to thank the representatives of the associations

who support us, like the Wandervogel.

Hello, my friends.

The Socialist Youth.

And our friends from the L.I.C.A,

the International League Against Antisemitism,

who honor us with their presence.

Good.

The party continues.

Thank you.

Here's the famous Otto!

My respects.

Tosia, my mother-in-law. My father, Julien.

- Pleased to meet you, Otto. - Very happy.

Thank you.

Are you a lover of literature?

Otto wants to launch translations of great French novels.

- Your publisher friends could help him. - Oh, yes.

We should come to dinner at our place.

I spoke about you to my friend Baronet, at the ministry.

He distributes the grants.

Oh, yes. But with pleasure.

- We'll do that. - Hmm.

My father introduced many people to Otto.

A whole network of writers, journalists,

academics, or politicians.

He was a sincere lover of France.

He wanted to reconcile the two countries, whatever the cost.

In the 1930s, even a respected American newspaper

like Time Magazine put Hitler on its cover.

He presented himself as a man of peace

who wanted to rebuild Germany.

We were blind.

- Welcome. - Ah!

- Finally. - You're okay?

- Very well, and you? - I'm fine, yes.

- We have an appointment at the ministry. - Ah.

- For the subsidies? - I don't know about that.

How much did they tell you?

50,000 ideally, that would save us.

And Corinne is well?

She's delighted to see you.

- I like the format. - Really?

- It's a new paper. - It prints well with the photos.

There's also the typography workshop. I'll show you.

You're well here, it's impressive.

It has to last.

- Yes? - Hello.

They want your signature.

Okay.

- Suzanne works at the newspaper. - Nice to meet you.

We can't pay her, but she works.

Hello.

Nice to meet you.