The film is set in a modern war, probably between a European country and a country in the Far East. Behind the battle lines, in a medical unit, a surgeon falls in love with an idealistic nurse after an initially difficult meeting.
Acting
Delon commits to unhinged surgeon energy completely.
Direction
Granier-Deferre pushes melodrama into genuine fever dream.
Director
Pierre Granier-Deferre
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The fictional war was deliberately vague to allow critique of French colonial interventions without censorship issues. Granier-Deferre shot the hospital scenes in an actual abandoned sanatorium.
The film bombed in 1979 because audiences expected a straightforward Delon romance. Its cult reputation grew after being rediscovered as an unhinged precursor to body horror.
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