Les Chants de Mandrin

The time, right before the French Revolution of 1789, the hero, Louis Mandrin a notorious outlaw famous for his trafficking contraband out of the French borders. He is caught and executed and his companions led financially by the idealist aristocrat Marquis of Levezin (Jacques Nolot), they started an underground network to publicize Mandrin’s poems and songs. A period drama, a representation of an era long gone and yet so contemporary, filled with poetry at a unique open space where cinema meets history and politics. Thieves, murderers, poets, rebellious and vengeful warriors signify the beginning of the French Revolution through their intense and progressive spirit. The need of freedom is evident throughout the film, not only by its brutal lyricism but also by the crude French landscape that becomes itself a character. (Nina Veligradi)