Manuel passes 18 months at Buchenwald before his return to Paris. He wonders even before his arrival who will have the patience and passion to listen to his narrative. He chooses silence.
Acting
Corbery's wordless grief—silence as performance.
Writing
Adapts Jorge Semprún with painful, necessary restraint.
Director
Franck Apprederis
Loïc Corbery
Manuel - 1945-46
Audrey Marnay
Laurence
Barbara Cabrita
Lorène
Bernard Le Coq
Manuel - 1992
Sarah Biasini
Julie
Lio
La chanteuse
Anne Loiret
Isabelle
Frédéric van den Driessche
Aragon
Philippe Le Dem
Boris Taslitzky
Éric Savin
Jean-Marie
Alexandre de Sèze
Marc
Denis Sebbah
Lieutenant Rosenberg
Sacha Bourdo
Albert
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Based on Jorge Semprún's autobiographical novel; he was a Buchenwald survivor who became a screenwriter (Z, La Guerre est Finie), making this a rare case of Holocaust testimony adapted by someone who lived it.
The film deliberately inverts the 'triumphant survivor' narrative—Manuel's return to 'normal life' proves more alienating than the camp, a perspective Semprún explored throughout his work.
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