Les Rayons et Les Ombres. (The Sunrays and the Shadows). My husband and I have just watched this film in a cinema in St Jean de Luz. It’s a true story of the lives of left wing and pacifist newspaper editor Jean Luchaire, his actress daughter Corinne Luchaire and their friend, Francophile pacifist and later Nazi ambassador to Paris, Otto Abetz, during the occupation of Paris by the Nazis in WW2. Luchaire (père) was executed as a collaborationist after the war; his daughter died of tuberculosis at the age of 28, just before her Jewish and very forgiving director was about to take her on tour in post-war Italy. Abetz was condemned to 20 years of hard labour in 1949 but then graced 5 years later. Five years after that, he and his wife died in mysterious circumstances in a car accident. It was rumoured that he knew far too much about collaborators who had not yet been outed. Directed by Xavier Giannoli and released just 10 days ago, it is absolutely spellbinding. And so relevant today. Where do I start?

• The fine boundaries between pacifism, communism and fascism, and pacifism’s vulnerability to exploitation by extreme ideologists of the left and right; one might say the same for the green movement;

• The extent to which great love (father and daughter) and friendship (Luchaire and Abetz) can cloud one’s judgment and lead to terrible acts and ends during times of extreme conflict;

• The necessity during such times for unambiguous moral clarity and the willingness to die for what is right, even when this may destroy the lives of those around you (this “even” is the one I would find hardest personally);

• The corruption that comes with moral ambiguity and, in particular, money or the lack and/or need of it;

• The ravages of communicable diseases (TB in this case) when there is no vaccine available (take that, you fool Robert F Kennedy Junior). Père Luchaire passed it to his daughter; the sanatorium where she was treated was packed with patients, with no regard to their nationality or financial status, many of whom would have died as Corinne did, in fear and pain, after years of living with the same fear and pain).

And there is more. I urge you to see this movie for yourself. It’s a visual treat, the acting, sets and fashions are superb, and above all it will make you THINK, long and hard, about our current world. The orgies in luxurious homes of the collaborators brought strongly to mind Mar-al-Lago, Epstein’s island and the vulgar ballroom Trump is building to outshine the White House. A must-see.

(Coincidentally, Otto Abetz’s great-nephew Eric Abetz was a young senator representing the Liberal party in my home state of Tasmania in Australia and worked with my aunt, Senator Shirley Walters. He was universally liked across both left and right. At age 68 he is now a Member of the Tasmanian House of Assembly. His father, Walter, the nephew of Otto, was a radio technician with the Wehrmacht who lost a leg on the Western Front and emigrated to Tasmania to work with the Hydroelectric Commission in 1961, the year after my birth. He is a Presbyterian minister and Master of Theology and, as of 2025, was still alive and well. Happily, the sins of the father did not spread to his brother’s descendants!