The Army of Crime

The Army of Crime is a 2009 French drama-war film directed by Robert Guédiguian and based on a story by Serge Le Péron, who is also one of three credited for the screenplay. It received a wide release in France on 16 September 2009 and opened in the United States in 2010. The film deals with the development of the Manouchian Group, a 23-member resistance unit led by an Armenian exile. They were captured in 1944, tried by a German military court and executed. The title of the film was taken from a propaganda poster known as L'Affiche Rouge (red poster), in which the Nazis sought to present these French Resistance fighters as foreign criminals. The caption read "Liberators? Liberation by the army of crime". Plot In Paris during the German occupation, resistance movements develop, including some by migrants. An ill-assorted group of resistance fighters commits disorganized attacks. Missak Manouchian, an Armenian exile, is ready to help but is reluctant to kill; for him, being ready to die but not to kill is an ethical matter but circumstances lead him to drop his reluctance. Under his leadership, the 23-member group better plans its actions and develops as what was known as the Manouchian Group. It was part of a network of 100 resistance fighters in Paris that carried out most of the acts of armed resistance in 1943. The film traces the history of this group, from its formation to the arrest, trial by a German military court and execution of its members in 1944. Trying to respond to public anger about the executions and discredit the resistance fighters, the Vichy government distributed and put up thousands of posters, known as because of the red background, with photos of ten of the men and data about their backgrounds, to portray the migrants as terrorists and criminals. The public wrote (Died for France) across the posters, the phrase officially commemorating soldiers who die in combat. They also left flowers in tribute.