Strange Gardens

Story

Lucien’s (Damien Jouillerot) adolescent problems with his father (Jacques Villeret) are cast in a new light when his father’s best friend (André Dussollier) tells him the story of how he and his father were faced with being executed when caught in a German dug-out during World War II. As the hour of their execution draws nearer, a German soldier entertains them and helps them forget their predicament. Based on the bestseller by Michael Quint, about his own father’s recollections of his wartime encounter with a German who was a clown before the war. The man was in fact Bernhard Wicki, later to become a film director of renown.

Director

Jean Becker (*1938)started as assistant to his father, directorJacques Becker. He worked with Julien Duvivierand Henri Verneuil and made three films withJean-Paul Belmondo in the sixties.