Antonin Baudry’s De Gaulle: Resistance and Liberty explores the largely untold story of how Charles de Gaulle became the face of the French Resistance during World War II. The two-part historical epic begins in June 1940, as France collapses, signs an armistice with Nazi Germany and the then little-known general leaves for London, convinced that the war was not over.
Both films will screen back-to-back on November 7 at the DGA Theater Complex during The American French Film Festival in Los Angeles. The event will mark the U.S. premiere of the second instalment, De Gaulle: Liberty, followed by a conversation with Baudry and actor Simon Abkarian, who plays the French general. Samuel Goldwyn Films is handling the North American release. The festival runs from November 3 to 8, 2026.
Produced by Pathé with a reported budget of $84 million, the project took more than five years to complete and has earned over $50 million in France since its summer release, making it one of the country’s biggest box-office hits of the year.
Baudry, a former French diplomat who directed Wolf’s Call, co-wrote the screenplay with Bérénice Vila. Rather than following the conventional structure of a biopic, the film remains focused on the period from 1940 to 1942 and contains no flashbacks. Its three main characters are de Gaulle, Winston Churchill and Fernand Bonnier de la Chapelle, while the story moves between intimate scenes and large-scale battles.
The director wanted to portray de Gaulle before his transformation into the familiar historical figure. According to Baudry, the national icon had not yet emerged in 1940, so the film draws on contemporary accounts that described the general as an unusual and sometimes startling presence, whether or not people agreed with him.
That isolation was also central to Abkarian’s interpretation. The actor said he had not previously understood how alone de Gaulle was after France’s capitulation, or that the Vichy army had condemned him to death and stripped him of his nationality. He also emphasized the general’s education and distinctive command of language, which he saw as closely connected to de Gaulle’s political vision.
Abkarian said he did not aim for strict naturalism. Instead, he approached de Gaulle as a man consciously constructing his own public persona, meaning that the performance had to capture someone who was himself performing a role.
The film’s North American release is scheduled to begin on November 6, with the second instalment due on December 4. Abkarian hopes the story’s focus on courage, honor and resistance will connect with American viewers, while Baudry identified a simpler message he wants audiences to take from the film: hope.
Sources: Deadline.