by Apostolos Kotsabasis
It is strange. You see the poster outside a cinema in Paris. DE GAULLE. In huge letters. Two films. A diptych. And people are going inside. Queues. Sold out. In France, in 2026.
Why now? That is the question.
General Charles de Gaulle. The tall one. The voice on the radio from London. “France has lost a battle, it has not lost the war.” The embodiment of the Resistance. The antidote to Vichy. To the most shameful chapter of modern French history, when half the country collaborated with the Nazis. And the other half? De Gaulle was the answer. Clear. Solid. Without shades of grey.
And now he is back. In Dolby Atmos.
And it is no coincidence. It never is.
Look around you. France is in turmoil. The National Assembly dissolved. Macron is a ghost in the Élysée. Le Pen is waiting in the wings, wearing Chanel. The economy? A squeeze. Rising prices. People counting their euros at Monoprix. The institutions? Under scrutiny. Political parties, the media, the police.
And in the bigger picture? War in Ukraine. Missiles over Iran. Live on TikTok. Everything live. Everything fluid.
What does a society do when everything becomes fluid? When it feels insecure? It looks back. It searches for a father. A general. Someone who appears to know what he is doing. Someone in uniform. Someone tall. Someone certain.
It is nostalgia, but it is not innocent. It is a longing for solidity. For an authority that does not apologize. That does not do Q&As on Instagram. That says, “I am France,” and leaves it at that.
That is why they are watching the film.
They are not watching history.
They are watching what they are missing.
