''15 Lads'' (french: Nos résistances) is a 2011 French

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

written and directed by Romain Cogitore in his feature film directorial debut, inspired by the real-life experiences of his grandfather, Antoine Cogitore, as a French Resistance fighter when he was a teenager. It stars

François Civil François Civil (; born 29 January 1990) is a French actor. He has appeared in both French and English-language feature films and is known for his roles in ''Frank'' (2014), ''As Above, So Below'' (2014), ''Call My Agent!'' (2015–17), ''Five'' ...

as a 19-year-old carefree rescuer who joins a group of 15 young men from the French Resistance in 1944. The film was released theatrically in France by Shellac Distribution on 5 January 2011. For his performance in the film, François Civil was selected as one of the Revelations of the 2012 César Awards and was on the longlist for a pre-nomination for the

César Award for Most Promising Actor The César Award for Most Promising Actor (french: César du meilleur espoir masculin) is one of the César Awards, presented annually by the Académie des Arts et Techniques du Cinéma to recognize the outstanding breakthrough performance of a y ...

Cast

as François/Racine *

Grégoire Colin Grégoire Colin (born 25 July 1975) is a French actor. Career Grégoire started acting on the French stage at age 12. He first caught the eye of critics in the 1992 Agnieszka Holland's psychological family drama ''Olivier, Olivier'' when he was ...

as Le Bourreau * Grégory Gatignol as Zozo *

Jules Sitruk Jules Sitruk (born April 16, 1990 in Lilas, near Paris) is a French actor, most widely known for his roles in the 2002 Gérard Jugnot, Jugnot film ''Monsieur Batignole'' and the 2007 Hammer & Tongs film ''Son of Rambow''. Sitruk began acting at ...

as Peigne *

Michel Vuillermoz Michel Vuillermoz (born 18 December 1962) is a French actor and scriptwriter. Vuillermoz has appeared in more than 100 films and 40 plays. In 1998, he received two Molière Award: Best Male Newcomer and Best Play for ''André le Magnifique''. ...

as Lieutenant Lebel * Jeanne Mettauer as Jeanne * Juliette Lamboley as Véronique * Jules Sadoughi as Ficelle *

Ralph Amoussou Ralph Amoussou (born 3 May 1989) is a French actor. He is known for his roles as Séby on the Netflix series ''Marianne'' (2019), Samuel Becker on the OCS series '' Missions'' (2019-2021), and Paul on the Netflix series ''Transatlantic'' (2023) ...

as The bear * Olivier Gueritée as Poux *

Augustin Legrand Augustin Legrand is a French actor. He replaced Jonathan Goldsmith Jonathan Goldsmith (born September 26, 1938) is an American character actor. He began his career on the New York stage, then started a career in film and television. He appe ...

as Tonio * Hélène Foubert as Racine's mother * Bruno Paviot as L'Adjudant * Maxime Lefrançois as Le Brigadier * Stéphanie Crayencour as Jeanne's sister *

Anne Benoît Anne Benoît is a French actress. She has appeared in more than 60 film and television productions since 1981. Career Benoît was trained at the Conservatoire de Versailles, under the direction of Marcelle Tassencourt. She later attended the Ta ...

as Véronique's mother *

Christopher Buchholz Christopher Buchholz (born 4 February 1962) is a German actor, who has appeared in more than 50 films since 1986. He is the son of actors Horst Buchholz Horst Werner Buchholz (4 December 1933 – 3 March 2003) was a German actor who appear ...

as The german soldier

Production

''15 Lads'' was Romain Cogitore's feature film directorial debut. The film was inspired by the real-life experiences of Cogitore's grandfather, Antoine Cogitore, who was a

resistance fighter A resistance movement is an organized effort by some portion of the civil population of a country to withstand the legally established government or an occupying power and to disrupt civil order and stability. It may seek to achieve its objectives ...

during

in the

Maquis Maquis may refer to: Resistance groups * Maquis (World War II), predominantly rural guerrilla bands of the French Resistance * Spanish Maquis, guerrillas who fought against Francoist Spain in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War * The network ...

Grande Chartreuse Grande Chartreuse () is the head monastery of the Carthusian religious order. It is located in the Chartreuse Mountains, north of the city of Grenoble, in the commune of Saint-Pierre-de-Chartreuse (Isère), France. History Originally, the ch ...

when he was 17 years old. Antoine's voice taken from a conversation between him with the director is featured at the end of the film. "I find his film very good. It was made by a young person for young people. I was overwhelmed, especially when I heard my voice at the end of the film. I didn't know that he had kept an extract of my conversation with him", Antoine said of the film in 2011. The film was shot in

Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...

and

Vosges The Vosges ( , ; german: Vogesen ; Franconian and gsw, Vogese) are a range of low mountains in Eastern France, near its border with Germany. Together with the Palatine Forest to the north on the German side of the border, they form a single ...

, between August and September 2009.

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* *
''15 Lads''
on

Cineuropa The MEDIA sub-programme of Creative Europe or simply Creative Europe MEDIA (formerly The MEDIA Programme of the European Union) is designed to support the European film and audiovisual industries. Budget The goal of programmers is to increase the ...

*
Screenplay
{{DEFAULTSORT:15 Lads 2011 films 2011 war drama films 2011 directorial debut films 2010s French films 2010s French-language films French war drama films French historical drama films Films directed by Romain Cogitore Films with screenplays by Romain Cogitore Films set in 1944 French World War II films Films about the French Resistance French films based on actual events Films set in France Films shot in Alsace Films shot in France