In "Merry Christmas" (or "Joyeux Noel" as it's known in its native France), German, Scottish and French soldiers lay down
their arms in the middle of World War I to celebrate Christmas together. It's a stunning act of pacifism and humanity, made all the more moving because it really happened, on a battlefield in France in 1914. The film does the incident justice, and then writer/director Christian Carion adds needless embellishments and fictionalizations, I guess because even French movies need to be Hollywoodized. But the underlying story is still a poignant one. We meet Nikolaus Sprink (Benno Furmann), an acclaimed German opera singer who is called up to military service when war is declared. His girlfriend, Danish soprano Anna Sorensen (Diane Kruger), is left behind. On the front, Sprink's commanding officer, the efficient and calculating Lt. Horstmayer (Daniel Bruhl), thinks Sprink is soft and useless.
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