Captain Conan (original title: Capitaine Conan ) is a 1996 French drama film directed by Bertrand Tavernier . It is based on the 1934 Prix Goncourt -winning novel Captain Conan (Fr. Capitaine Conan ) by Roger Vercel .
104-665: In the French infantry on the Macedonian front during the First World War , Conan, an officer of the elite Chasseurs Alpins , is the charismatic leader of a special squad, many from military prisons, who raid enemy lines at night taking no prisoners. Despising career soldiers, his only friend is the young academic, Norbert. When the Armistice with Bulgaria is signed in September 1918, his unit
208-545: A Bulgarisation policy. According to academic Paul Mojzes : "it appears that ethnic cleansing (at a minimum) and genocide (at the maximum) did take place between 1915 and 1918", what historian Alan Kramer has termed a: "dynamic of destruction". The occupation ended in late September 1918, after the Allied offensive at Dobro Polje , spearheaded by Serbian and French forces , pierced the Bulgarian front and liberated Serbia. After
312-624: A "reverse exoticism" for the Greek Macedonia as Vietnamese soldiers serving in the tirailleurs indochinois celebrated their traditional Vietnamese holidays, which provided unusual spectacles in the Balkans. The troops of the 10th (Irish) Division of the British Army had very a "live and let live" attitude towards their Bulgarian enemies, and refrained from trench raids, only shelled each other's trenches at specific times to avoid too inconvenience to
416-471: A Serbian army offensive from the Salonika front. Most Serbian guerrilla leaders, including both Kosta Vojinović and Kosta Pećanac, set up their headquarters on Mount Kapaonik. By 3 March guerilla units made of local inhabitants had liberated Kuršumlija and Prokuplje as well as regions in the areas of Vlasotince and Sokobanja , coming 9 km southwest of Niš. General Adolf Baron von Rhemen , governor of
520-864: A border between Albania and Montenegro; during the Second Balkan War, Bulgaria renounced the annexation of Serbian Macedonia, which was definitely annexed to Serbia after the Florence Protocol in December 1913. The Allies had long pressed Bulgaria to join them but her price was the acquisition of Macedonia , the Allies regarded this as reasonable on ethnic grounds but the proposals had not been agreed upon in advance with Serbia and Greece , which were strongly opposed to ceding their territory. The Central Powers , however, were prepared to cede what Bulgaria wanted, Serb and Greek territory. Bulgaria's traditional aims lay in
624-592: A constitutional monarchy, Bulgaria depended on the consent of its people to keep fighting while stress and discontent with the war grew. An unintentional result of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which ended the war with Russia and the Treaty of Bucharest which ended the war with Romania was to undermine morale in the Austrian Imperial and Royal Army. Besides for the peace treaties, Serbia had been defeated in 1915 and Italy had been almost defeated in 1917, meaning that most of
728-484: A crisis in Greece. Though the royalist government ordered its troops in the area (the demobilized IV Corps ) not to resist and to retreat to the port of Kavala for evacuation, naval vessels did not turn up to permit the evacuation to take place. Despite occasional local resistance from a few officers and their nucleus units, most of the troops, including their commander, surrendered to a token German force and were interned for
832-550: A fifty-four-minute documentary about the making of the film. The release date of the DVD was December 19, 2000. Macedonian front Army Group Scholtz Allied Army of the Orient Serbian campaign (1914) Serbian campaign (1915) Austro-Hungarian and Bulgarian occupation Aegean Albania Greece ( National Schism ) Macedonian front The Macedonian front , also known as
936-543: A full Serbian retreat, southwards and westwards through Montenegro and into Albania . The Serbs faced great difficulties: terrible weather, poor roads and the need for the army to help the tens of thousands of civilians who retreated with them. Only c. 125,000 Serbian soldiers reached the Adriatic coast and embarked on Italian transport ships that carried the army to Corfu and other Greek islands before it travelled on to Thessaloniki. Marshal Putnik had to be carried around during
1040-599: A gendarmerie working hand in glove to Bulgarianise the region. During the war the IMRO arose from a clandestine organization into an important factor of the Bulgarian nationalistic policy supporting the Bulgarization of the area. Some paramilitary companies joined the Bulgarian Army forming the 11th Macedonian Infantry Division . Additionally, this division had guerrilla companies formed by IMRO-irregulars, that participated at
1144-552: A house or home. More than 80,000 were deported to Bulgaria, in Niš, almost the entire male population, some 4,000 men, was deported. One batch was sent by train to Pirot and the rest had to go on foot. On 24 March the Austro-Hungarian ordered its troops out of the Bulgarian zone, on 25 March the Bulgarian command officially ended its operation. On 28 March Protogerov declared an amnesty, promising internment instead of execution; none of
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#17328591900501248-538: A huge fortified camp, earning themselves the mocking nickname "the Gardeners of Salonika". The Serbian army (now under the command of General Petar Bojović ), after rest and refit on Corfu, was transported by the French to the Macedonian front. In the meantime, the political situation in Greece was confusing. Officially, Greece was neutral, but King Constantine I was pro-German, while Prime Minister Eleftherios Venizelos
1352-474: A land devastated by war and exploitation; besides losing 210,000 men of its armed forces, Serbia suffered an additional 300,000 civilian casualties out of a 3.1 million population, material losses were incalculable. After the defeat of Bulgaria and the return of Macedonia, the Slav population of the area was declared Serbian and Bulgarian cultural, religious, and educational institutions were closed down. Bulgaria
1456-539: A military commander were created: Bulgarian policy in Macedonia, and to some degree in occupied Serbia, was motivated by what historian Alan Kramer has termed a 'dynamic of destruction' a desire not just to defeat the enemy militarily, but also to erase all traces of its culture and destroy any evidence that it had ever been there at all. To create pure Bulgarian territories, the Bulgarian military government started implementing in eastern Serbia, Macedonia, and parts of Kosovo
1560-540: A multi-colored crowd on the quayside! Caftans, turbans, western suites in the latest style, black robes and scarlet fezzes like poppies" and Thessaloniki was "both wretched and splendid, just like the Orient". Burnet's reaction to Thessaloniki was very typical of the Anglo-French responses to Thessaloniki, a city that did not match expectations of classical Greece and seemed to them to be more Ottoman than Greek. The treatment of
1664-714: A number of units from Algeria, and the Tirailleurs indochinois from Vietnam. Algeria was considered part of France at the time and a significant minority in Algeria were pied noirs as the European settlers were called, and the French did not necessarily consider Algerian units to be colonial units, and it is possible that at least third of the French Armée d' Orient were colonial units. The presence of so many colonial units from Algeria, French West Africa, Madagascar and Indochina led to
1768-782: A political system of systematic denationalization, Bulgarisation , and economical exploitation. In the Morava zone, where the majority of the population was Serbs, transforming the region into a part of the Kingdom of Bulgaria, meant the extermination of the Serbian nation and culture and for this the removal of all representatives of Serbian national spirit; teachers, clergymen, journalists as well as members of Serbian Parliament as well as former soldiers, officers and military official between 18 and 50 years of age were interned, shot or deported to Bulgaria as prisoners of war or to work as forced labourers. In
1872-529: A progressive loss of Arab lands. In Austria-Hungary, non-German and non-Hungarian parts of the multinational empire grew more openly restive. On the Western Front , intense German spring offensives had not defeated France, and American deployment was increasingly effective, with US forces operating under independent command from June 1918. Though Bulgaria was not at war with the United States, German victory over
1976-448: A report covering alleged atrocities committed in Serbia, published after the war, stated that ‘anyone unwilling to submit him or herself to the occupiers and become Bulgarian was tortured, raped , interned , and killed in particularly gruesome manners, some of which recorded photographically'. Bulgarian units that occupied Serbian territories showed extreme brutality, systematically expelling
2080-647: A series of events that led to the defeat of Germany in November 1918, and which led him to place the operations in the Balkans as one the decisive theaters of the war. The idea that the lands around the Mediterranean Sea were the weak point for the opposing side influenced Churchill's strategy in World War Two, where consistently showed a preference for operations in the Mediterranean area as the supposed weak point in
2184-666: A stable front was established, running from the Albanian Adriatic coast to the Struma River , pitting a multinational Allied force against the Bulgarian army , which was at various times bolstered with smaller units from the other Central Powers . The Macedonian front remained stable, despite local actions, until the Allied offensive in September 1918 resulted in Bulgaria capitulating and
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#17328591900502288-694: A treaty with Germany and on 21 September 1915 Bulgaria began mobilizing for war. After the victory of the Serbian army in the Battle of Kolubara in December 1914, the Serbian front saw a lull until the early autumn of 1915. Under the command of Field Marshal August von Mackensen , the Austro-Hungarian Balkan Army, the German 11th Army and river flotillas on the Danube and the Sava began an offensive on 6 October 1915,
2392-464: Is sent to Bucharest , capital of France's ally Romania , as part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War . Neither fighting nor demobilised, idleness and low morale leads to criminality and indiscipline and courts-martials begin. After being appointed a defence attorney, despite his protests and having no legal expertise, and performing well, Norbert is coerced into filling to place of
2496-523: The César Award for Best Actor . The film was also nominated for six other César Awards including Best Film , Best Writing and Most Promising Actor . The film was nominated for Film Presented at the Telluride Film Festival . The DVD is in French with English subtitles , widescreen , and has a 2.0-channel PCM audio mix. The only special feature on the DVD is Un Film Sur Bertrand Tavernier ,
2600-588: The Danube river and was poised to enter the heartland of Hungary . At the request of the French General, Count Károlyi , leading the Hungarian government, came to Belgrade and signed another armistice, the Armistice of Belgrade . Winston Churchill in his memoirs/history of the First World War, The World Crisis , assigned much importance to the defeat of Bulgaria in September 1918, which he saw as beginning
2704-525: The Danube to Kosovo in the south. The new border with Austria-Hungary ran along the Morava river to Stalać and then between the South (Južna) and West (Zapadna) Morava rivers, the region of Skopska Crna Gora and Šar Planina mountain. Austro-Hungary took the rest of Serbia. The Bulgarians divided the territories occupied by their troops into two military general governorates. Two administrative zones supervised by
2808-573: The Military General Governorate of Serbia , ordered Austro-Hungarian troops to cross into the Bulgarian zone in support while requesting the Austrian Supreme Command to send assistance. Three armies of around 30,000 men tasked with crushing the uprising were sent to the region in the largest-ever anti-guerilla campaign. Austro-Hungarian, German and Bulgarian troops were brought from the Macedonian and Italian front , while in
2912-646: The Red Army . During the action, Conan empties the stockade of mutineers and drives off the attackers. In a sombre epilogue , years later back in France, Norbert visits Conan to find him no longer the dashing hero but the terminally ill owner of a small haberdashers , his profession before the war, disappointed with his neighbours and wife. The film has two out of three fresh reviews on Rotten Tomatoes , even though there are more reviews listed. Janet Maslin, of The New York Times , said that Mr. Torreton powerfully embodies
3016-657: The Salonica front (after Thessaloniki ), was a military theatre of World War I formed as a result of an attempt by the Allied Powers to aid Serbia , in the autumn of 1915, against the combined attack of Germany , Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria . The expedition came too late and with insufficient force to prevent the fall of Serbia and was complicated by the internal political crisis in Greece (the National Schism ). Eventually,
3120-527: The Serbianisation policy that preceded it in the contested region between the two countries. About half of Vardar Macedonia , as the region was called by Serbia, was also inhabited by various ethnic groups who did not identify as Bulgarian; according to a 1912 survey by the British Foreign Office, namely Serbs, Turks , Albanians , Greeks , Vlachs, Jews and Gypsies . In the eastern parts of
3224-673: The Vardar river alone. This advance gave some limited help to the retreating Serbian army, as the Bulgarians had to concentrate larger forces on their southern flank to deal with the threat, which led to the Battle of Krivolak (October–November 1915). By the end of November, General Sarrail had to retreat in the face of massive Bulgarian assaults on his positions. During his retreat, the British at Kosturino were also forced to retreat. By 12 December, all Allied forces were back in Greece. The Germans ordered
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3328-485: The invasion of Serbia by the combined armies of Germany , Austria-Hungary and Bulgaria . After Serbia 's defeat and the retreat of its forces across Albania, the country was divided into Bulgarian and Austro-Hungarian occupation zones . The Bulgarian occupation zone extended from modern-day Southern and Eastern Serbia , Kosovo and North Macedonia . The civilian population was exposed to various measures of repression, including mass internment, forced labor , and
3432-503: The mission civilisatrice ("civilizing mission"), which led for the French Army to embark upon a series of public works projects such as building bridges, improving roads, providing piped water to rural villages, trying to eradicate malaria, and so forth. Such projects were intended primarily to benefit the French Army, but many French officers genuinely believed that helping the local people "come to love France" as one French colonel put it
3536-501: The "revolutionary" Venizelist " Provisional Government of National Defence " at Thessaloniki. At the same time, the Italians had deployed more forces to Albania, which managed to push the Austrian corps back through very hilly country south of Lake Ostrovo . The Allies treated Salonika very much like a colony. Thessaloniki was more ethically and religiously mixed than today, was viewed by
3640-415: The Allied forces held a defensive line after two weeks. Having halted the Bulgarian offensive, the Allies staged a counter-attack starting on 12 September ( Battle of Kaymakchalan ). The terrain was rough, and the Bulgarians were on the defensive, but the Allied forces made steady gains. Slow advances by the Allies continued throughout October and into November, even as the weather turned cold and snow fell on
3744-533: The Allies could only offer Bulgaria small territorial concessions from Serbia and neutral Greece, the Central Powers' promises appeared far more enticing, offering to cede most of the land Bulgaria claimed . With the Allied defeats at the Battle of Gallipoli (April 1915 to January 1916) and the Russian defeat at Gorlice-Tarnów (May to September 1915) demonstrating the Central Powers' strength, King Ferdinand signed
3848-572: The Allies established a naval blockade around southern Greece which was still loyal to King Constantine, causing extreme hardship to the people in those areas. Six months later, in June, the Venizelists presented a list of conditions, resulting in the exile of the Greek king (on 14 June, his son Alexander became king) and the reunification of the country under Venizelos. The new government immediately declared war on
3952-525: The Austrian war aims had already achieved, and from the Austrian point of view, there was no more point in continuing the war. However, the Austrian Empire was very much the junior partner in its alliance with Germany, and under strong German pressure Austria-Hungary had to continue the war, which caused serious morale problems in the Imperial and Royal Army by 1918. Within the Imperial and Royal Army, Germany
4056-1157: The Axis. 1912–1913 1913 1914 1915 [REDACTED] Bulgaria Nikola Zhekov • Kliment Boyadzhiev • Dimitar Geshov • Georgi Todorov • Ivan Lukov • Stefan Nerezov • Vladimir Vazov Entente : [REDACTED] Serbia : Radomir Putnik • Živojin Mišić • Stepa Stepanović • Petar Bojović • Pavle Jurišić Šturm ; [REDACTED] France : Maurice Sarrail • Adolphe Guillaumat • Louis Franchet d'Espèrey ; [REDACTED] United Kingdom : Bryan Mahon • George Milne ; [REDACTED] Kingdom of Greece : Panagiotis Danglis 1915 Morava Offensive • Ovče Pole Offensive • Kosovo offensive (1915) • Battle of Krivolak 1916 First battle of Doiran • Battle of Florina (Lerin) • Struma operation • Monastir offensive 1917 Bulgarian occupation of Serbia (World War I) The Bulgarian occupation of Serbia during World War I started in Autumn 1915 following
4160-648: The British and French soldiers as an exotic "Oriental" city with its winding, cramped streets, domes, churches, synagogues, mosques, and the very striking White Tower that overlooked the city. Thessaloniki had been part of the Ottoman Empire until 1912 when it was won by Greece in the First Balkan War, and in 1915 the city still had a very Ottoman feel to it. Etienne Burnet, a French bacteriologist sent out from Paris to take part in an anti-malaria campaign marveled: "What
4264-432: The Bulgarian army attacked from two directions, one from the north of Bulgaria towards Niš , the other from the south towards Skopje (see map). The Bulgarian army rapidly broke through the weaker Serbian forces that tried to block its advance. With the Bulgarian breakthrough, the Serbian position became hopeless; their main army in the north faced either encirclement and forced surrender or retreat. Marshal Putnik ordered
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4368-553: The Bulgarian occupation troops in the Morava region crushed the uprising in the Toplica district with the help of IMRO irregulars. Bulgarians paramilitary groups were responsible for multiple instances of war crimes committing during the war in the parts of the Kingdom of Serbia under Bulgarian occupation. Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand declared on the eve of war: "the purpose of my life is the destruction of Serbia". Many Bulgarian troops were side-lined from front line duty to take part in
4472-460: The Bulgarian soldiers who were following strict instructions to treat civilians the same way they treated soldiers. Additionally, there were regular bombardments of Serbian territories by the aviation and Bulgarian artillery which were operating on the Balkan front around the end of 1916. At the same time, there was a prohibition of Serbian culture; Bulgarians systematically looted Serbian monasteries and
4576-466: The Bulgarian-inhabited areas of Macedonia, Dobrudja , and European Turkey , but in 1915 it demanded territory well beyond its ethnographic borders. On 6 September 1915, the Bulgarian government joined the Central Powers after signing a secret treaty of alliance with Germany. On 6 October 1915 under the overall command of German General August von Mackensen , Austria-Hungary and Germany began
4680-408: The Bulgarians in the Battle of Doiran . The Franco-Serbian army continued advancing vigorously, and the next day, some Bulgarian units started surrendering positions without a fight, and the Bulgarian command ordered a retreat. In the official British government history of the Macedonian campaign, Cyril Falls wrote a detailed analysis of the situation of the Bulgarian forces and the situation of
4784-438: The Bulgarians not to cross the Greek borders, reluctant to risk a Greek entry into the war in response to a Bulgarian invasion in Macedonia. The Allies took advantage of that, reinforcing and consolidating their positions behind the borders. Thus there resulted in a clear, albeit incomplete, victory for the Central Powers. They opened the railway line from Berlin to Constantinople , allowing Germany to prop up its weaker partner,
4888-482: The Bulgarians, deprived of German and Austrian support, quickly found themselves in full flight, pursued by the Army of the Orient. The Bulgarian Tsar and government decided to seek an armistice, capitulating on 30 September, the first of the Central Powers to do so. According to its terms, Bulgarian troops had to evacuate all occupied Greek and Serbian territories, including Macedonia. The Serb army returned in 1918 to find
4992-617: The Central Powers and created a new army. On 30 May 1918, the Allies launched an offensive on the heavily fortified Skra salient, commencing the battle of Skra-di-Legen . The battle marked the first significant Greek action for the Allied side. Utilizing the cover of heavy artillery, a Franco- Hellenic force made a rapid push into the enemy trenches, conquering Skra and the surrounding system of fortifications. Greek casualties amounted to 434–440 killed in action, 154–164 missing in action and 1,974–2,220 wounded, while France lost approximately 150 men killed or injured. A total of 1,782 soldiers of
5096-422: The Central Powers became prisoners of war, including a small number of German engineers and artillery specialists that served in Bulgarian units; considerable amounts of military equipment also fell into Allied hands. The plan for a Bulgarian counteroffensive against Skra remained unfulfilled as Bulgarian soldiers refused to participate in the operation. Both the Greek and the French press used the opportunity to laud
5200-461: The Entente. The Bulgarians had also increased their army during 1917, leading both sides to have roughly equal military power (291 Allied battalions vs. 300 Bulgarian battalions and ten German battalions). However, as 1918 progressed, it was clear that the Entente had the momentum the Central Powers lacked. Russian defeat had yielded no meaningful benefit to the Central Powers. The Ottoman Empire faced
5304-450: The Greek port of Thessaloniki (Salonica) too late to contribute to the operations to help Serbia. The main reason for the delay was the lack of available Allied forces due to the critical situation in the Western Front . The Entente used Greek neutrality as an excuse , although they could have used the Albanian coast to rapidly deploy reinforcements and equipment during the first 14 months of
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#17328591900505408-595: The Hague Conventions, international laws, document war crimes and identify the perpetrators. The reports of the commission in Eastern Macedonia summarised the violations of the Hague Conventions: the massacre of the civilian population, torture, rape, internment, punitive economic expropriation, requisitions, and various taxes, plunder, forced labor, destruction, arson, and other actions aimed at "destroying
5512-431: The Mitrovica district, Albanian gendarmes were sent to track down rebel leaders. On 8 March, the Bulgarian army started their offensive while supported by Albanian detachments, artillery and air support. The Austro-Hungarians launched their attack on 12 March 1917. IMRO leader Aleksandar Protogerov was called to assist the Bulgarian army with the counter-insurgency operations, which were met with harsh reprisals throughout
5616-453: The Ottoman Empire. Despite the victory, the Allies managed to save a part of the Serbian army , while although battered, seriously reduced, and almost unarmed, escaped destruction and reorganized, resuming operations six months later. And most damagingly for the Central Powers, the Allies—using the moral excuse of saving the Serbian army—managed to replace the impossible Serbian front with a viable one established in Macedonia (albeit by violating
5720-433: The Ottoman government asked for an armistice (the Armistice of Mudros ) on 26 October; Enver Pasha and his partners had fled several days earlier to Berlin. The Serbo-French army recaptured Serbia and overran several weak German divisions that tried to block its advance near Niš . On 3 November, Austria-Hungary was forced to sign an armistice on the Italian front ending the war there. On 10 November, d'Espèrey's army crossed
5824-461: The San Stefano Treaty in 1878, Bulgarian leaders aspired for the reconstitution of Greater Bulgaria . Thus the areas of Pomoravlje and Macedonia, became a target of Bulgarian nationalism . Due to the loss at the Second Balkan War in 1913, the Bulgarian Kingdom had to limit their territorial pretenses over the territory of Macedonia. When Serbia was trying to obtain access to the sea in Albania, Austro-Hungarian diplomacy got more active to establish
5928-411: The Serbian flank, and its intervention on either side of the belligerents would be decisive. Bulgaria and Serbia had fought each other twice in the previous thirty years: in the Serbo-Bulgarian War of 1885 and the Second Balkan War of 1913. Bulgaria had suffered defeat in 1913, and the Bulgarian government and people generally felt that Serbia had seized land which rightfully belonged to Bulgaria. While
6032-401: The Serbian presence in the newly occupied territories". We can affirm that there is not a single article of the Convention of The Hague or principle of international law that the Bulgarians did not violate. At the Peace Conference of 1919, the Commission on the Responsibility of the Authors of the War and on Enforcement of Penalties , a precursor of the United Nations War Crimes Commission ,
6136-434: The United States appeared conceptually infeasible. Finally, and most importantly for Bulgaria, although almost all of its territorial war aims were already achieved, because World War I was not merely a third Balkan War , Bulgaria could not quit. Alongside its partners, Bulgaria continued to suffer high casualties and civilian privation, including food shortages, seemingly to achieve the unrealized objectives of its allies. As
6240-415: The beginning of 1916 in several massacres of Macedonian Serbs in the areas of Azot , Skopska Crna Gora and Poreče , most notably Tasa Konević an Orthodox priest and Macedonian Serb Chetnik executed with 104 other Serb leaders from Poreče. Regular Bulgarian troops took control of the region while komitadjis were appointed mayors and prefects and took control of the whole police structure. Every major town
6344-431: The beginning of 1916, regions in the west and north and part of Kosovo were ceded to Austria-Hungary. A German occupation zone was established in the area east of Velika Morava, Južna Morava in Kosovo and the Vardar valley, the Germans took control of railways, mines, forestry, and agricultural resources. As defined by the agreement of 6 September, Bulgaria gained the whole of Macedonia and Eastern and Southern Serbia, from
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#17328591900506448-428: The boy may be blameless and that his officer is seeking to have him shot. Conan, who hates the officer, agrees and takes Norbert to the old front line where the boy was lost in action. Both become convinced of his innocence but he is convicted nonetheless. Despite the soldiers wishing to return home, the French move up to the Danube as part of the Allied intervention in the Russian Civil War and come under attack from
6552-428: The coast of the Adriatic Sea into Italian-controlled Albania . By the end of the winter, the small Italian army in Albania had been forced out of nearly the whole country. With the war in the Balkans almost lost, the British General Staff wanted to withdraw all British troops from Greece, but the French government protested strongly, and the troops remained. The Allied armies entrenched around Thessaloniki, which became
6656-543: The country. On 10 March 1917 Protogerov issued an ultimatum to the chetniks to surrender within five days or face execution. They did not surrender, so Protogerov and his army attacked the civilian population and their villages. About 20,000 Serbs were killed in fighting, executions or reprisals. In the town of Surdulica alone about 2,500 Serbian men were executed, thousands of women and children were interned and others were sent to prison. Thirty-six villages near Leskovac were completely depopulated. Families were left without
6760-599: The departing prosecutor to protect Conan, who is facing multiple charges, from the danger of unjust and severe punishment. In an armed robbery of a crowded nightclub, some of Conan's men, disguised, seize the takings, in the process badly injuring a female singer and fatally wounding the female cashier. With the help of the Romanian police and a French prostitute, Norbert finds and prosecutes the culprits but ensures they receive light sentences. A widow arrives from France looking for her son, whom she finds awaiting trial for desertion. After listening to her story, Norbert thinks that
6864-456: The efforts of the Greek army, favourably influencing the Greek mobilization. The fall of Skra prompted Bulgarian prime minister Vasil Radoslavov to resign on 21 June 1918. Aleksandar Malinov , who assumed office immediately afterwards, pursued secret negotiations with Britain, offering to withdraw Bulgaria from the war with the condition that Bulgaria fully retain eastern Macedonia. However, British prime minister David Lloyd George rejected
6968-410: The entire retreat; he died just over a year later in a French hospital. The French and British divisions marched north from Thessaloniki in October 1915 under the joint command of French General Maurice Sarrail and British General Bryan Mahon (Commander, British Salonika Force , 1915). However, the London War Office was reluctant to advance too deep into Serbia. So the French divisions advanced up
7072-401: The event, the lack of Allied support sealed the fate of the Serbian army. Against Serbia, the Central Powers marshalled the Bulgarian Army, a German army , and an Austro-Hungarian army , all under the command of Field Marshal Mackensen . The Germans and Austro-Hungarians began their attack on 7 October with a massive artillery barrage, followed by attacks across the rivers. Then, on 11 October,
7176-455: The film's central questions of what a fighter becomes without combat and where the values inherent in savage battle may lead. Ken Fox, of TV Guide , said beautiful as it is brutal and that it is one of the best war films of recent years. Alex Albanese, of Box Office , said that the film is finely wrought—as hard, precise and heartbreaking as its title character. Bertrand Tavernier won the César Award for Best Director and Phillippe Torreton won
7280-412: The fourth invasion of Serbia since the beginning of the war. On 14 October, the Bulgarian armies moved into Serbian territory joining the ongoing invasion. Bulgaria entered the war on the side of the Central Powers, with the primary goal of regaining territory briefly gained from the Ottoman Empire in 1912–13 , then lost to Serbia in 1913 . The pressure of Austro-Hungarian, Bulgarian and German armies in
7384-405: The front. Although a breakthrough was achieved at Dobro Pole and the Allied forces continued their advance, the Bulgarian army was not routed and managed an orderly retreat. By 29 September (a day before Bulgaria exited World War I), Skopje fell, but a Bulgarian and German force had been ordered to try and retake it the next day; the number of Bulgarian prisoners-of-war in allied hands around that day
7488-676: The hills. Though the Germans sent two more divisions to help bolster the Bulgarian army, by 19 November, the French and Serbian armies captured Kaymakchalan , the highest peak of Nidže mountain and compelled the Central powers to abandon Bitola to the Entente; c. 60,000 Bulgarians and Germans were killed, wounded or captured. The Allies suffered c. 50,000 battle casualties while another 80,000 men died or were evacuated due to sickness. The front moved about 25 miles (40 km). The unopposed Bulgarian advance into Greek-held eastern Macedonia precipitated
7592-470: The lands it believed were rightfully its own. In 1899 and 1907 for the first time, an International Peace Conferences was held at The Hague. The conference brought forward a codification of the customs and laws of war. Following the first world war, the Inter-Allied Commission a fifteen-member commission was created, ahead of the upcoming Paris Peace Conference of 1919, to report violations of
7696-614: The largest offensive against Serbia. By September 1915, despite the extreme sacrifice of the Serbian army, the Austro-Hungarian Balkan Army, having crossed the rivers Sava and Drina , and the German 11th army after crossing the Danube, occupied Belgrade , Smederevo , Požarevac and Golubac , creating a vast bridgehead south of the Sava and Danube rivers, and forcing Serbian forces to withdraw to southern Serbia. On 15 October 1915, two Bulgarian armies attacked, over-running Serbian units and penetrating
7800-453: The later civil administration had all the features of ethnic cleansing. Besides the regular army, Bulgaria's paramilitary groups played an immense part in the fighting capabilities of Bulgaria, they were used as auxiliaries to provide knowledge of local conditions. They were known as komitadjis, these irregular troops also contributed strongly in brutalising the war. The notorious Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization (IMRO) served as
7904-582: The liberation of Serbia. Following the assassination of the Crown Prince by a Bosnian Serb, Austria-Hungary had attacked Serbia in August 1914 but had failed to overcome Serbian resistance. After the entry of the Ottoman Empire into the war on the side of the Central Powers (November 1914), the decisive factor in the Balkans became the attitude of Bulgaria. Bulgaria occupied a strategically important position on
8008-417: The local women by their menfolk created much disgust as the women were always cloistered away or treated as "beasts of burden". Many of the French soldiers were peasants who were much incensed by the backward state of agriculture in the farms outside of Thessaloniki, which led many French soldiers to complain about the primitive farming methods of Macedonia. The French in particular saw themselves as engaged in
8112-563: The next day. Under those chaotic circumstances, a Bulgarian delegation arrived in Thessaloniki to request an armistice. On 29 September, the Bulgarians were granted the Armistice of Salonica by General d'Espèrey, ending their war. The Macedonian front ended at noon on 30 September 1918 when the ceasefire came into effect. The Soldiers' Uprising was finally put down by 2 October. German Emperor Wilhelm II , in his telegram to Bulgarian Tsar Ferdinand I , stated: "Disgraceful! 62,000 Serbs decided
8216-480: The non-Bulgarian population in the regions they occupied, they arrested the population and set the rebel villages on fire. In addition to the numerous cases of rape, Bulgarian forces encouraged the mixed marriage of Serbian women with Bulgarian men and espoused the view that children born to such marriages should be raised as Bulgarians. Middle-class Serbian functionaries were also suppressed: teachers, religious workers, functionaries, and intellectuals were executed by
8320-506: The north, and their massive superiority in numbers and equipment, forced the Serbs to withdraw across northern and central Albania. On 28 November 1915, Army Group Mackensen announced the end of the Serbian campaign, thereby ending the offensive. After a six-week campaign, the Kingdom of Serbia was almost completely invaded; it was then divided between the Habsburg Empire and Bulgaria. At
8424-429: The occupation of Serbia, past animosities led to brutality, the local population was left a choice between Bulgarisation or being subject to violence, large scale deportations and the treatment of the residents of the occupation zones came close to genocidal actions. The Documents relatifs aux violations des Conventions de La Haye et du Droit international, commis de 1915–1918 par les Bulgares en Serbie occupée ,
8528-569: The other side and often avoided shooting at the enemy. The mostly Irish troops in their letters to their families back home often described Bulgarians as "Brother Bulgar", and reserved all their hatred for the Germans and the British General Staff, which was they accused of neglecting them. By spring 1917, General Sarrail's Allied Army of the Orient had been reinforced to 24 divisions, six French, six Serbian, seven British, one Italian, three Greek and two Russian brigades . An offensive
8632-515: The prominent Serb guerrilla and military leaders surrendered and continued instead guerilla actions on the occupiers throughout the rest of the war. The insurrection of the Serb population is remembered as the only armed uprising of an occupied population in the whole of World War One. On 15 September 1918, French and Serbian mountain troops successfully attacked hitherto impregnable Bulgarian positions at Dobro Pole . Greek and British forces joined in,
8736-634: The proposal, assuring the Greek ambassador in London Ioannis Gennadius that Britain would not act against Greek interests. With the German spring offensive threatening France, Guillaumat was recalled to Paris and replaced by General Franchet d'Espèrey . Although d'Espèrey urged an attack on the Bulgarian army, the French government refused to allow an offensive unless all the countries agreed. General Guillaumat, no longer needed in France, travelled from London to Rome , trying to win approval for an attack. Finally, in September 1918, an agreement
8840-459: The region, where a considerable part of Macedonian Slavs had pro-Bulgarian sentiments or felt themselves to be Bulgarians, that population welcomed the Bulgarian army as liberators. For the rest of the population and in particular for the Macedonian Slavs who identified as Serbs (or those who felt neither Serb nor Bulgarian), the brutality of the Bulgarian army, the irregulars Komitadji and
8944-495: The remainder of the war at Görlitz , Germany. The surrender of territory recently won with difficulty in the Second Balkan War of 1913 was the last straw for many Venizelist army officers. With Allied assistance, they launched a coup which secured Thessaloniki and most of Greek Macedonia for Venizelos. From that point, Greece had two governments: the "official" royal government at Athens, which maintained Greek neutrality, and
9048-431: The situation for Serbia became desperate. The developments finally forced the French and the British to decide upon sending a small expedition force of two divisions from Gallipoli ( 156th Infantry Division (France) and 10th (Irish) Division respectively). Though the first troops landed in the port of Salonika on 5 October to combine into an Army of the Orient under the French commander Maurice Sarrail , they arrived in
9152-518: The territory of an officially neutral country); this front would prove key to their final victory three years later. On 5 January 1916, the Austro-Hungarian Army attacked Serbian ally Montenegro . The small Montenegrin army offered strong resistance in the Battle of Mojkovac , which greatly helped the withdrawal of the Serbian army, but soon faced impossible odds and was compelled to surrender on 25 January. The Austro-Hungarians advanced down
9256-581: The toponymy of villages was changed to Bulgarian. From October 1916 to February 1917, a spontaneous Serbian uprising broke out in the Bulgarian-occupied territories of southern and eastern Serbia, notably in the valley of the Južna Morava , on Mount Kapaonik and in Kosovo. It followed attempts by the Bulgarian army to force draft Serbian men into the Bulgarian army and shoot those who resisted. The scheme
9360-528: The valley of the South Morava river near Vranje up to 22 October 1915. The Bulgarian forces occupied Kumanovo , Štip , and Skopje and prevented the withdrawal of the Serbian army to the Greek border and Thessaloniki (Salonika). The Allies (Britain and France) had repeatedly promised to send military forces to Serbia, but nothing had materialized for a year. However, with Bulgaria's mobilization to its south,
9464-670: The war!" On 29 September 1918, the German Supreme Army Command informed Wilhelm II and the Imperial Chancellor Count Georg von Hertling , that the military situation facing Germany was hopeless. Ferdinand I abdicated and went into exile on 3 October. The British army headed east towards the European side of the Ottoman Empire as the French and Serbian forces continued north and liberated Serbia, Albania and Montenegro . The British army neared Constantinople, and with no Ottoman forces capable of stopping it,
9568-562: The war. (As the Serbian Marshal Putnik had suggested, the Montenegrin army gave adequate cover to the Albanian coast from the north—at a safe distance from any Bulgarian advance in the south in the event of a Bulgarian intervention.) The Entente was also delayed due to protracted through finally fruitless secret negotiations to bring Bulgaria into the Allied camp, which would have alleviated Serbia's need for Franco-British help. In
9672-483: The zone of Macedonia , Bulgaria, like Serbia, did not recognise the local Slav population as a separate ethnic or national group. Both Bulgaria and Serbia considered the Slavic-speaking population as being ethnically linked to their nation and thus asserted the right to seek their integration. The Bulgarian denationalisation policy, including its paramilitary aspect, was almost identical in its intent and execution to
9776-472: Was a Bulgarian offensive, as the Austro-Hungarian army was in Albania, and only one German division was on the Greek border. The Bulgarians attacked on two fronts. In the east, they easily conquered all Greek territory east of the river Struma (see Struma Offensive ) since the Greek army was ordered not to resist by the pro-German King Constantine. The attack achieved early success in the west thanks to surprise, but
9880-405: Was an idealistic goal in and of itself that was worth pursuing. Of the 8 French Army divisions stationed on the Salonika front, three were colonial divisions while the 156th French Division had a significant number of colonial units attached to it. Of the 221, 000 French troops who served in Macedonia, at least 47,000 (21%) were colonial units, mostly the tirailleurs sénégalais from West Africa,
9984-494: Was controlled by a komitadji leader whose power became absolute and legitimized through a new administrative system. IMRO member Naum Tomalevski , whose house was the headquarters of the Ilinden Uprising of 1903, was appointed mayor of Kruševo . After 1917 the Bulgarian government started using paramilitary groups to gain control over the internal situation in both Pomoravlje and Macedonia. Aleksandar Protogerov who headed
10088-525: Was created. The Commission organized war crimes "against the laws of war and humanity" into thirty-two specific classes including: "massacres, rapes, deportations and internments, tortures and deliberate starvation, forced labour and systematic terrorism". The majority of the Commission came to the conclusion that the war of 1914–1919 was carried on by the Central Powers and their allies, Turkey and Bulgaria, with barbarian and illegitimate methods, in violation of
10192-490: Was cursed as the "secret enemy" that had bullied the Austrian empire into continuing the war in order to achieve German war aims. The preparatory artillery bombardment of Bulgarian and Central Powers positions for the Battle of Dobro Pole began on 14 September. The following day, the French and Serbians attacked and captured their objective. On 18 September, the Greeks and the British attacked but were stopped with heavy losses by
10296-567: Was forced to give up all its conquered territory as a consequence of the Treaty of Neuilly imposed by the Allies, its army was reduced to a force of 20,000 volunteers and stripped of much of its equipment; four small regions (referred to by Bulgarians as the Western Outlands ) were ceded to the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, its population also declared Serbian. Bulgaria would return in 1941, as an ally of Nazi Germany , to once more occupy
10400-483: Was identical to that previously pursued by the Serbian army, which in August 1914 had attempted to conscript more than 60,000 people from Macedonia on the frontline defense of Serbia against the Austria-Hungarian attack. Chetnik Lieutenant Kosta Milovanović-Pećanac was flown by the Serbian supreme command southwest of Niš to locate and organise rebel action against enemy lines of communication, in preparation for
10504-550: Was only 15,000. Another major factor contributed to the Bulgarian request for an armistice. A mass of retreating Bulgarian mutineers had converged on the railway centre of Radomir in Bulgaria, 30 miles (48 km) from the capital city of Sofia. On 27 September, leaders of the Bulgarian Agrarian National Union took control of these troops and proclaimed the overthrow of the monarchy and a Bulgarian republic. About 4,000–5,000 rebellious troops threatened Sofia
10608-410: Was planned for late April, but the initial attack failed with significant losses, and the offensive was called off on 21 May. To put more pressure on Athens, the Venizelists and the Entente occupied Thessaly and Isthmus of Corinth , dividing the country. After an attempt to occupy Athens by force, which caused the reaction of the local royalist forces and ended in a fiasco in December (see Noemvriana ),
10712-409: Was pro-Allied. Venizelos invited the Entente into Thessaloniki. With the knowledge that Romania was about to join the Allied side, General Sarrail began preparations for an attack on the Bulgarian armies facing his forces. The Germans made plans of their own for a "spoiling attack". The German offensive was launched on 17 August, just three days before the French offensive was scheduled to start. This
10816-522: Was reached, allowing d'Espèrey to launch his grand offensive. The Allied forces were now large, despite the Russian exit from the war due to the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk in March 1918. Greece and its army (nine divisions) were fully committed to the Entente, while 6,000 Czech and Slovak former prisoners of war held on the Italian front were re-armed, reorganized, and transferred to the Macedonian front to fight for
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