While the husbands manage their relationships on the battlefield, the fates of four women – Marguerite, a Parisian street girl, Caroline, a small factory manager, Agnes, a convent sister, and Suzanne, a nurse – become intertwined. Circumstances are formed in such a way that women are forced to support each other in order to survive on their own in the cruel conditions of war and surrounding chaos.
A constant ensemble of actresses
The significant English title of the multi-series film «Women At War» has been used several times in cinematography. Therefore, it is important not to confuse this French/Belgian co-production with the Icelandic/Ukrainian film «Islandes amazone» (English: «Women At War») released in 2018, which was also shown in Latvian cinemas, as well as with the novel by the Italian writer Dacia Maraini, which has a direct same name.
It is interesting that the film provides a mirror image of the events depicted in another current Oscar-nominated Netflix film – the new adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque’s book “Im Westen nichts Neues” by German director Edvard Berger. In this film, the events are seen from the point of view of young German soldiers, while in the series – from the French positions. For many who have not studied history in depth, this fierce French resistance may come as a surprising revelation.
The authors of the idea of ”Fighters” are two French ladies – Camille Trayner and Cecile Lorne – who created a story about four strong women who are not only forced to use real combat weapons at times, but mainly still fight for their family, justice and happiness with complex psychological techniques . The series was produced by several television stations – French TF1, Belgian AT-Production and RTBF, as well as the French producer association Quad Drama.
The work was directed by Alexander Loren, who is better known for the 2019 multi-part film “Le Bazar de la Charité” (“The Bonfire of Destiny”), which told about the tragic fire accident in Paris at the “Charité” charity event, where 126 people lost their lives in the flames, mainly wealthy society ladies. Three of the actresses who starred in this Lorraine series – Audrey Flurault, Julie Se Bon and Camilla Lou – are seen together again in the same ensemble in this historical war drama. Apparently, the director has found his actresses, trusts them and at the same time introduces them to a wider international audience. It was successful, as the series has now become one of the top 10 most watched video on the trauma platform «Netflix». The road to Hollywood is open.
Perhaps the brightest jewel in this trio is the 45-year-old redhead Fluro, whose list of films and series is impressive. Although she has acted mostly in French cinema, she can also be seen in Woody Allen’s romantic “Midnight in Paris” and the big-budget comedy “The Intouchables”. It is Marguerite, played by Fluro, the daughter of Parisian joy, that is the focus of the first episode of the series.
Fates of women in war-torn France
Each character in the series has its own in-depth storyline. The aforementioned Marguerite drives a modern car to the war zone in the mountainous city of Senpo to look for someone special. The war has just begun, artillery shells are heard in the distance, it is the summer of 1914, and French men in scuba gear are being mobilized into the army. However, everyday life is going on in parallel – there are shops, factories, also brothels, where Margerita gets a job, even though her main goal is not to make money, but to unravel some ancient secret. In the first episode, we also get to know the beautiful nurse Suzanne, who, hiding in a truck, leaves Paris to find refuge in Switzerland. In Paris, she had worked as a nurse, performing illegal abortions, which at that time were very dangerous for women’s health. Unfortunately, her last operation was unsuccessful because the wife of a Parisian detective dies. He, of course, blames the nurse for what happened and is determined to catch and punish her.
We soon get to know Agnes, the sister of the monastery, who, together with the other servants of God, as well as the only surgeon in the city, selflessly takes care of the soldiers, cares for the wounded and takes care of the burial of those who died in the war. Agnes also shelters the runaway nurse, who realizes that her knowledge and skillful hands as a nurse could be very useful in caring for the wounded, and she decides to stay in town and help a sympathetic surgeon.
In the first episode, we also get to know Caroline, a woman from a wealthy French family, who, after her husband’s enlistment in the army, was left alone with her hated mother-in-law and daughter, and was forced to take over the reins of the factory he managed. Caroline also has a secret from her past that she doesn’t want to reveal, but a chance meeting with Marguerite tears up old memories and scars. The situation is not made easier by the husband’s brother Charles, who came from Paris, who secretly decides to take over the management of the factory in order to implement his own nefarious plans.
With each episode, the situation in women’s destinies becomes more and more complicated, various other disturbing plot lines also appear, for example, the local priest’s sexual crimes against young girls, which puts Agnes in front of a choice, but together they manage to overcome many of the difficulties.
War restoration and filming locations
The series was completely filmed in France in July 2021, still during the pandemic, mainly in the Haute-France and Ile-de-France regions. Its creators carefully studied the geography of the region, carried out preparatory work by photographing the hilly landscape, and of course also consulted with local collectors, museum specialists, and historians in order to restore the soldiers’ uniforms, firearms, and the surrounding environment as accurately as possible. Several scenes were also filmed in the small town of Plombières-les-Bains, also known as the “city with a thousand balconies”, which was once a popular spa center. The streets of the city were covered with sand, old wooden kiosks were built in the squares to bring the atmosphere of the beginning of the 20th century as close as possible. An ancient monastery built in the 14th century, located in Upper France, near Lille, was transformed into a war hospital in the series.
The women in this series are both a curse and a salvation for each other at the same time. The series has successfully managed to find a balance between women’s behavior under stressful conditions, as well as to show their solidarity and mutual support. Although all questions are not answered in this work, it allows each viewer to interpret and unravel the plot threads left free.
Reviews
Leisure Byte, www. leisurebyte.com
“The presence of war in this series is felt at every step – fear, despair, aggression. The series perfectly reflects all these feelings on the screen, while allowing each of the main characters to come into the limelight. Drugs, mental illnesses, post-traumatic stress syndromes, also sexual tension, all this can be found in this work.»
The Arts Desk, theartsdesk.com
“The series has the presence of elements of romance, mystery, melodrama and even soap opera genres, but the approaching threat of war, like a burning torch, raises the emotional temperature of the characters of the series to boiling point, playing out situations that lead to extremes.”
