In part financed by what had been the Resistance as a way of showing international audiences what the French population had been facing under Nazi oppression. The Resistance was also keen to let the world know that they had been actively involved in disrupting the German war machine in France as the international perception at the time was that the French had capitulated and collaborated a little too easily with their Nazi captors.
Cinematographer Henri Alekan actually had been a member of the Resistance, having escaped from a Nazi POW camp.
A huge success in its native France when it premiered in 1946, one year after liberation.
Shot on the actual locations with a cast of non-professional actors.
Won the first Prix International du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival.