Mon légionnaire

My second cousin died in an ambush fighting against ISIL as part of US forces working with French regulars and Legionnaires in this area of Africa about four years ago.

Like these men he knew what he had signed up for and truly believed in help get the people out from under the boot of ISIL and the extremely bloodthirsty ultra fanatical Islamcists there. He participated in the rescue of girls as young as ten yeas old that had been part of kidnappings of entire villages young women and girls. The US intelligence services had withdrawn satellite and reconnaissance support in 2016 leading to ISIL being able to kill our forces

This film is set in the same conflict area. The at home/Corsica segments are a bit too melodramatic, standard soap opera fare. But the combat and non combat scenes set in Mali are quite good. Bravo to the brave French soldiers.

If anyone among you wishes to enlist, join the Foreign Legion, you should watch this movie. It's not a propaganda war film, with plenty of gun fights, explosions, heroes and sacrifice. No. It's a drama showing legionnaires and their families, their lives and daily issues. Not bad but characters are not that convincing, especially Louis Garrel, whose hair cut, even for a lieutnant, seems not adequate for this Military Corps. I have at least learned that legionnaires may be married, I have always thought they were not for most of the. But after all, why not? I have never been to the Foreign Legion, so I guess this movie is faithful and accurate to reality. That's all.

For a starter, I used to be an NCO in the Foreign Legion and spent several years in Africa. As I type these lines I am actually in Mali working now for a governmental agency.

Now regarding this "essai": It's dull, it's boring, it's bland, with uninteresting characters, full of the usual clichées and hear-say. Some of the scenes are more accurate than others, but all in all this is a melodramatic piece of fiction that wants itself to be taken very serious, yet falls completely flat, especially if you see it with the eyes of someone who's been there and didn't do that.

The fighting scenes are not the worst I've seen, but neither the director, nor the screenwriter and especially not the choreographer had either knowledge or a good consultant with good knowledge.

I wouldn't call this movie a stinker, but I will call it bad movie about some human relations in a certain surrounding that involves the Foreign Legion ... well, the Foreign Legion some people fantasize and romanticize about.

Nika (the late Ina Marija Bartaite) arrives on Corsica from Ukraine to join Vlad (Aleksandr Kuznetsov), her boyfriend who serves in the French Foreign Legion. Meanwhile a new officer, Maxime (Louis Garrel) and his wife Céline (Camille Cottin) adapt to their new lives - the latter having to reconcile her high-flying legal career with the expectations of the place in the military community of an officer's spouse. While their men undertake tours of duty in Mali, the women left behind on Corsica engage in various social activities (coffee mornings, etc).

I usually like character-based dramas but this one seems to be especially dull, meaning the bursts of military action - something that would not usually appeal to me - in Mali were a welcome relief. As for the acting, everyone is good - with the possible exception of Kuznetsov, and that may be because Vlad is written as such a one-note military man any actor portraying him would find it tough to shine. It definitely makes a change to see Garrel playing a less arty, more realistic and (slightly) more macho character than he usually portrays: he also seems to have gained some muscle for the role, to good effect.

Worth watching once, but the rather random plot ("What was the point?" asked my companion) means I will not be watching twice.