04 Mar 2020
Director: Xavier Beauvois
France, Switzerland
2018
138 min
A quietly affecting human drama of love, loss, and resilience unfolds against the backdrop of World War I in this outstanding film from director Xavier Beauvois (Of Gods and Men). Set in rural France in 1916, The Guardians details the lives of women and girls as they work on a farm run by matriarch Hortense and her loitering daughter Solange. When a romance forms between Hortense’s son Georges, a soldier on leave from the frontlines and orphaned teenage farmworker Francine, their love is tested not only by the war but also by the complex social fabric of the community. Composed in painterly images bathed in natural light, The Guardians is a subtle and intimate epic work about the fortitude of women during times of global conflict.
London Film Festival 2017 – Nominee for Best Film Award