Captain Conan

Captain Conan (Capitaine Conan, 1996) is Bertrand Tavernier's war drama, and you can watch it online on iFILM. It's late 1918 on the Balkan front, where the fighting still rages, and Captain Conan commands a small pack of cutthroats who only feel alive with a knife in close combat.

Conan (Philippe Torreton) is a born warrior whose men would follow him into anything. The trouble is that the war is ending and these soldiers have no idea how to live in peace. When the unit is shipped to occupied Bucharest, a very different battle begins — against military tribunals, desk officers and their own consciences. Conan's friend Lieutenant Norbert (Samuel Le Bihan) is ordered to prosecute the very men he led into the trenches.

Adapted from Roger Vercel's Prix Goncourt-winning novel, the film works through, step by step, what unused violence does to a man — no battlefield glory, just the real mud of the line. Torreton took home the César for Best Actor and Tavernier won for directing. Stream Captain Conan (1996) online on iFILM.