Le Voyage De La Veuve (2008)

Genres - Drama  |   Run Time - 91 min.  |   Countries - France  |  
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Synopsis by Mark Deming

An executioner and his colleagues ponder the integrity of their trade in this historical drama inspired by actual events. In March 1918, after fifty years of refusing to implement the death penalty, the King of Belgium decides a recent criminal case demands capital punishment -- a man who was found guilty of killing his pregnant wife. However, since it has been decades since Belgium executed a felon, the state lacks the necessary tools, and the King calls upon France to let them borrow a guillotine and a man who knows how to work it. Deibler, considered to be one of the most skillful executioners in France, is sent to Belgium with a guillotine in tow to do the job, accompanied by his associates Lieutenant Vinel, Corporal Thabar and Jules Pasquier. However, as they make their way to Belgium, traveling through battlefields of the First World War, Deibler and his friends find themselves torn over the ethics of the case as citizens of both nations argue about the political and moral issues tied to the death penalty. Starring Jean-Michel Dupuis, GĂ©rald Laroche and Bernard Blancan, Le Voyage de la Veuve (aka The Journey of the Widow) received its North American premiere at the 2008 Montreal World Film Festival.

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Keywords

capital-punishment, ethics, execution, guillotine, king