The Round Up

The Round Up is a 2010 French historical war drama film written and directed by Roselyne Bosch and produced by Alain Goldman. The film stars Mélanie Laurent, Jean Reno, Sylvie Testud and Gad Elmaleh. Based on the true story of a young Jewish boy, the film depicts the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup (Rafle du Vel' d'Hiv), the mass arrest of Jews by French police who were accomplices of Nazi Germans in Paris in July 1942. Plot During the summer of 1942 France is under German occupation, the Jews are obliged to wear the yellow star; In the Butte Montmartre district, two Jewish families live like the other inhabitants of this district, with the exception that, being Jews, they fear the arrival of the Gestapo. In Paris, opinions are divided, some want to protect the Jews by hiding them while others like the baker prefer to insult them, and belittle them. On the night of July 16 to 17, their destiny changed following an agreement between the Nazis and the French authorities on the arrest and deportation of numerous Jews, an agreement which led to the roundup of the Vélodrome d'Hiver. The Butte Montmartre district will not escape it, indeed the family of Joseph Weismann, a Jew, and their neighbors are arrested after having tried by several means to escape. Joseph's father could have escaped this arrest if Joseph had not inadvertently denounced him when his mother had pretended to be a widow to the militiamen. Following this raid, they are taken to the Vélodrome d'Hiver, where Joseph and Noé, his best friend's little brother, meet a nurse, Annette Monod, who will do her best to help them and the other Jews. In this velodrome, the conditions are precarious and unsanitary: they have no water, they are crowded and they have to relieve themselves where there is space. The meager food they have taken must be shared so that each of them can eat. One early morning when the prisoners are thirsty, the firefighters burst in and open the valves to give the prisoners something to drink. They also agree to “pass on” the letters entrusted to them. Captain Pierret, of the Paris firefighters, even uses his rank (the highest among all the soldiers present at the Vél' d'Hiv': National Gendarmerie and firefighters of Paris) to take command of the Vél' d'Hiv' in order to impose silence on the gendarmes dissatisfied with his attitude and that of his colleagues.