À la vie (To Life)

It's been said that soldiers who fight together are bonded for life, no matter their differences in background and values. In Jean-Jacques Zilbermann's French drama, the same holds true for a trio of Holocaust survivors who kept themselves alive during their days as kitchen laborers in the Auschwitz death camp. A powerful prologue finds Helene (Julie Depardieu) and Lily (Johanna ter Steege) getting ready to evacuate the camp with other prisoners in advance of Russian liberators. They go to Rose (Suzanne Clément) but find her too weak from illness and starvation to join them. After a brief interlude in which Hélène reestablishes her life in Paris (among other things, she hastily marries her childhood love, Henri, who was castrated by the Nazis), the story jumps to 1962, with the three women reuniting for the first time since 1945. The setting is a beach town, Berck-sur-Mer, where romping in the ocean, ice cream treats, and general loosening up enable Hélène, Lily, and Rose to be casual and honest in their dealings with one another. Like siblings who share a deep connection, the trio can be warm and sensitive one moment and hostile in the next, the latter spurred by the fact there are some dark secrets and confessions to be revealed about Auschwitz. Meanwhile, Lily and Rose encourage Hélène —still a virgin in mid-life—to have a sunny affair with a young man. Featuring strong performances by the three lead actresses, this engaging drama is recommended. (T. Keogh)