through the death of a poilu, story of the sacrifices of the First World War

FRANCE 2 – SUNDAY NOVEMBER 10 AT 1:15 P.M. – DOCUMENTARY SERIES

Augustin Trébuchon was the last French soldier to die during the First World War. Or it wasn't. The debate is still lively among specialists who, with supporting documents and a pocket watch in hand, discuss and sometimes quibble about who was the ultimate victim on the battlefield, a few minutes before the Armistice came into force. on November 11, 1918 at 11 a.m. A debate as fascinating as it is vain, like that of knowing who the Unknown Soldier is, under the Arc de Triomphe, in Paris. In both cases, it is only the consequence of chance. So, go for Trébuchon!

This observation is the starting and ending point of a documentary in four episodes. Removing this one from anonymity rather than another, telling the story of the war through him, basically, is not putting him on a pedestal. It is paying homage to all the deaths of 14-18, to the approximately (sad and enlightening approximation) 1.5 million furry people who left their skin.

Taking an interest in a pioupiou who, after four years of war, broke his pipe at the age of 40, when the Armistice was already signed but not yet entered into force, highlighting an agent of transmission which undoubtedly led to his officer announcing the imminent end of the war, it also shows the absurdity of this conflict and the insensitivity of a general staff launching a final offensive, which turned out to be suicidal while the victory was almost confirmed. Moreover, the cruelty of dying on the last day, close, so close to peace, pushed the authorities to modestly backdate by one day, to November 10, the death of Augustin Trébuchon and his comrades sacrificed during the Battle of Vrigne-Meuse, in the Ardennes.

Four years in hell

Augustin Trébuchon is a shepherd from Lozère, orphan, without wife or children. Of his four years in hell, he left no written trace. All that remains of him is a face, a blond man with a thin mustache, and a few dusty lines in the departmental archives, dryly retracing his military career, his injuries and his medals. Alexandre Duyck had decided to fill the biographical gaps with the imagination in a very beautiful novel written in the first person (AugustinJC Lattès, 2018). In 2014, in The Unsung Soldierdirector Jérémie Malavoy chose the mode of animation to restore flesh and spirit to this soldier.

Romain Potocki and Manoé David opted for another narrative mode. They found the regiments and the places where Augustine had passed; unearthed letters or notebooks that comrades-in-arms had left behind. Their descendants are filmed in the places they describe, recounting the life of their ancestors, and therefore a bit of Trébuchon at their side. Artists use gouache to bring the protagonists to life. They deliver their thoughts at the same time as the brush rushes across the paper.

Romain Potocki took what he had experimented with in 2018 further in a first documentary, In the name of the fathers (on demand on France.tv), already devoted to this morning of November 11 in Vrigne-Meuse. In his new film, the director states that “the question of the der des de makes no sense”. But his determination to plow this character proves the opposite. We cannot blame him.