''Calm at Sea'' (french: La mer à l'aube) is a 2011 German / French drama film directed by

Volker Schlöndorff Volker Schlöndorff (; born 31 March 1939 Friday) is a German film director, screenwriter and producer who has worked in Germany, France and the United States. He was a prominent member of the New German Cinema of the late 1960s and early 1970s, ...

. The film depicts the events leading to the 1941 execution of a group of French communists, including the 17-year-old

Guy Môquet Guy Prosper Eustache Môquet (, 26 April 1924 – 22 October 1941) was a young French Communist militant. During the German occupation of France in World War II, he was taken hostage by the Nazis and executed by firing squad in Châteaubriant in ...

, as retaliation for the assassination of a German officer by the French resistance.

Cast

* as

Marc Barbé Marc Barbé (born 6 May 1961) is a French film actor. He has appeared in more than fifty films. Selected filmography References External links * 1961 births Living people Actors from Nancy, France French male film actors {{Fr ...

Jean-Pierre Timbaud Jean-Pierre Timbaud ( Payzac, Dordogne, September 20, 1904 - Chateaubriant, October 22, 1941) was the secretary of the steelworkers’ trade union section of the Confédération Générale du Travail (CGT). He took part in the strikes which prec ...

Ulrich Matthes Ulrich Matthes (born 9 May 1959) is a German actor, possibly best-known for having played Joseph Goebbels in the 2004 film '' Downfall''. Life and work Matthes was born in West Berlin and educated at the Evangelisches Gymnasium zum Grauen Klost ...

Ernst Jünger Ernst Jünger (; 29 March 1895 – 17 February 1998) was a German author, highly decorated soldier, philosopher, and entomologist who became publicly known for his World War I memoir '' Storm of Steel''. The son of a successful businessman and ...

* as Lucien Touya * Sébastien Accart as Bernard Lecornu * as Claude Lalet *

Jacob Matschenz Jacob Matschenz (born 1984, Berlin) is a German actor. He is notable for film and television work including '' The Wave'' (2008), ''12 Paces Without a Head'' (2009) and ''The Sinking of the Laconia'' (2010). He won the Adolf Grimme Award The ...

as Soldat Otto

Reception

The sea in the morning was mostly positively received. Jörg Schöning sums it up in Der Spiegel: “Schlöndorff's film, which is not particularly interested in the more recent questions of humanity, thankfully concentrates on the concrete. The sea in the morning is the stroke of luck of a documentary game: the people, their actions and words are historically documented, the consequences of their actions are highly dramatic - and still trigger considerable emotions today.” Filmgazette editor Wolfgang Nierlins judged: "Schlöndorff's film shows the fateful course of events, relentlessly aggravated by human arbitrariness and blind coincidence as a tragic event." He understands The Sea in the Morning as “a differentiated plea for humanity” and awards 8 out of 10 possible stars.

References

External links

* * 2011 war drama films 2011 films German war drama films French war drama films 2010s German-language films 2010s French-language films Films directed by Volker Schlöndorff Films set in 1941 World War II films based on actual events Films about the French Resistance 2011 drama films 2011 multilingual films French multilingual films German multilingual films 2010s French films 2010s German films {{drama-film-stub