Watch A Very Long Engagement

This romantic French-language drama tells the story of a young girl's search for her missing fiance who is presumed dead on the battlefields after World War I. During World War I, five French soldiers have been found guilty of deliberately injuring themselves to avoid war duty. As their punishment, they are dumped in the unclaimed land between the German and French lines where they will surely die. Indeed, after the war is over, and the five never return, everybody assumes they are, in fact, dead. The fiance of one of the soldier's, Mathilde, however, refuses to accept the fact that her lover is dead. After she finds a letter which suggests the possibility that he may still be alive, she embarks on a quest to find answers.

What she discovers is not only the fate of her own lover, but the stories of the other four soldiers who were effectively sentenced to death as a result of the brutal policies of the war that was going to end all wars. The film is told through a series of flashbacks, and the panoramic French countryside and Parisian scenes add to the wistful tone of the movie.