The 40 most popular french war movies, ranked. Click any film for ratings, reviews, trailers, and where to watch.


The Pianist
2002 · 2h 30m
country: France
The true story of pianist Władysław Szpilman's experiences in Warsaw during the Nazi occupation. When the Jews of the city find themselves forced into a ghetto, Szpilman finds work playing in a café; and when his family is deported in 1942, he stays behind, works for a while as a laborer, and eventually goes into hiding in the ruins of the war-torn city.


The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc
1999 · 2h 38m
country: France
In 1429, a French teenager stood before her King with a message she claimed came from God; that she would defeat the world's greatest army and liberate her country from its political and religious turmoil. As she reclaims God's diminished kingdom, this courageous young woman has various amazing victories until her violent and untimely death.


The Tin Drum
1979 · 2h 42m
country: France
In 1924, Oskar Matzerath is born in the Free City of Danzig. At age three, he falls down a flight of stairs and stops growing. In 1939, World War II breaks out.


Captive Women 4
1977 · 1h 30m
country: France
To improve the morale of the German officers, a train with beautiful girls is arranged to entertain them when on leave.


Don't Look Now... We're Being Shot At!
1966 · 2h 12m
country: France
During World War II, two French civilians and a downed British Bomber Crew set out from Paris to cross the demarcation line between Nazi-occupied Northern France and the South. From there they will be able to escape to England. First, they must avoid German troops – and the consequences of their own blunders.


Their Finest
2017 · 1h 57m
country: France
During the Blitz of World War II, a female screenwriter works on a film celebrating England's resilience as a way to buoy a weary populace's spirits. Her efforts to dramatise the true story of two sisters who undertook their own maritime mission to rescue wounded soldiers are met with mixed feelings by a dismissive all-male staff.


Captain Corelli's Mandolin
2001 · 2h 11m
country: France
When a fisherman leaves to fight with the Greek army during World War II, his fiancée falls in love with the local Italian commander.


A Very Long Engagement
2004 · 2h 13m
country: France
Young Frenchwoman Mathilde searches for the truth about her missing fiancé, lost during World War I, and learns many unexpected things along the way. The love of her life is gone. But she refuses to believe he's gone forever — and she needs to know for sure.


Oradour
2026
country: France
Five days before the massacre at Oradour-sur-Glane , Philippe Gerbier, an officer in the Free French Forces , is parachuted in near the village . He is to lead a mission for the Resistance in preparation for the D-Day landings . There, he is reunited with Marie, his childhood sweetheart.


See You Up There
2017 · 1h 53m
country: Canada
In November 1918, a few days before the Armistice, when Lieutenant Pradelle orders a senseless attack, he causes a useless disaster; but his outrageous act also binds the lives of two soldiers who have nothing more in common than the battlefield: Édouard saves Albert, although at a high cost. They become companions in misfortune who will attempt to survive in a changing world. Pradelle, in his own way, does the same.


Grand Illusion
1937 · 1h 54m
country: France
A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.


Macbeth
2015 · 1h 53m
country: France
Macbeth, the Thane of Glamis, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife, Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.


Special Forces
2011 · 1h 49m
country: France
Afghanistan. War correspondent Elsa Casanova is taken hostage by the Taliban. Faced with her imminent execution, a Special Forces unit is dispatched to free her. In some of the world’s most breathtaking yet hostile landscapes, a relentless pursuit begins between her kidnappers who have no intention of letting their prey escape them and a group of soldiers who risk their lives in pursuit of their single aim – to bring her home alive. This strong, independent woman and these men of duty are thrown together and forced to confront situations of great danger that inextricably bind them – emotionally, violently and intimately.


The Man with the Iron Heart
2017 · 2h
country: Belgium
With the Third Reich at its peak in 1942, the Czech resistance in London plans the most ambitious military operation of WWII – Anthropoid. Two young recruits are sent to Prague to assassinate the most ruthless Nazi leader – Reinhard Heydrich, head of the Reich Security Main Office, the Gestapo and the architect of the Final Solution.


Is Paris Burning?
1966 · 2h 53m
country: France
Near the end of World War II, General Dietrich von Choltitz receives orders to burn down Paris if it becomes clear the Allies are going to invade, or if he's unable to maintain control of the city. After much contemplation, Choltitz ignores orders, enraging the Germans and giving hope to various resistance factions that the city will be liberated. Choltitz, alongside Swedish diplomat Raoul Nordling, helps a leader organise his forces.


Europa Europa
1990 · 1h 52m
country: France
A Jewish boy separated from his family in the early days of WWII poses as a German orphan and is taken into the heart of the Nazi world as a 'war hero' and eventually becomes a Hitler Youth.


13 Days, 13 Nights
2025 · 1h 51m
country: France
Kabul, August 15, 2021. US troops are preparing to withdraw from Afghanistan, while the Taliban are marching on the capital to seize power. Amid the chaos, Commander Mohamed Bida and his men are in charge of security at the French embassy, the last Western mission to remain open. Trapped along with 500 people, left to their own devices, the team must reach the airport at all costs. A perilous mission with no guarantee of success to flee the hell of Kabul and rescue what remains of humanity.


Sunflower
1970 · 1h 49m
country: Italy
After World War II, a woman refuses to believe her husband, missing on the Russian front, is dead. Flashbacks reveal their brief courtship and marriage. Years later, she travels to Russia with his photo, determined to find him. What will she discover?


Army of Shadows
1969 · 2h 25m
country: France
Betrayed by an informant, Philippe Gerbier finds himself trapped in a torturous Nazi prison camp. Though Gerbier escapes to rejoin the Resistance in occupied Marseilles, France, and exacts his revenge on the informant, he must continue a quiet, seemingly endless battle against the Nazis in an atmosphere of tension, paranoia and distrust.


The Round Up
2010 · 1h 55m
country: France
A faithful retelling of the 1942 "Vel' d'Hiv Roundup" and the events surrounding it.


The Ambush
2021 · 1h 50m
country: United Arab Emirates
It is the winter of 2018, the men and women of the UAE military are deployed to provide aid. At the Mocha Base, spirits are high as three Emirati soldiers anticipate an imminent return home. While on their final routine patrol, the three soldiers, Ali, Bilal and Hindasi are ambushed by heavily armed militants on their route, through a narrow canyon. Trapped, wounded, and out of communication range, the three soldiers realize the gravity of their situation. They are running out of options, munitions - and time. Back at the base, their commander receives word and realizes that the assault on the UAE army patrol was premeditated. A rescue mission is quickly put into action, but will air and land support reach the men in time, and will they survive?


A Bag of Marbles
2017 · 1h 53m
country: Belgium
At the beginning of the 1940s, in a France occupied by Nazi forces, lived the Jewish Joffo family. Happy and tight-knit, she sees her future darken when all members of the family are forced to wear the yellow star. Fearing the worst, the parents organized their family to flee to the free zone in the south of the country. Maurice, twelve years old, and Joseph, ten years old, will therefore leave alone in order to maximize their chances of finding their older brothers already settled in Nice. The brothers left to their own devices demonstrate an incredible amount of cleverness, courage, and ingenuity to escape the enemy invasion and to try to reunite their family once again.


Suite Française
2015 · 1h 43m
country: Belgium
France, 1940. In the first days of occupation, beautiful Lucile Angellier is trapped in a stifled existence with her controlling mother-in-law as they both await news of her husband: a prisoner of war. Parisian refugees start to pour into their small town, soon followed by a regiment of German soldiers who take up residence in the villagers' own homes. Lucile initially tries to ignore Bruno von Falk, the handsome and refined German officer staying with them. But soon, a powerful love draws them together and leads them into the tragedy of war.


The Night of the Generals
1967 · 2h 28m
country: France
A German intelligence officer investigates a prostitute's killing in Warsaw during World War II. He lands on three major Nazi generals as suspects, two of whom are also involved in a plot to kill Adolf Hitler.


Onoda: 10,000 Nights in the Jungle
2021 · 2h 47m
country: France
Japan, 1944. Trained for intelligence work, Hiroo Onoda, 22 years old, discovers a philosophy contrary to the official line: no suicide; stay alive whatever happens; the mission is more important than anything else. Sent to Lubang, a small island in the Philippines where the Americans are about to land, this role will be to wage a guerrilla war until the return of the Japanese troops. The Empire will surrender soon after; Onoda, 10,000 days later.


Paradise Now
2005 · 1h 30m
country: France
Two childhood friends are recruited for a suicide bombing in Tel Aviv


Au Revoir les Enfants
1987 · 1h 45m
country: Germany
Au revoir les enfants tells a heartbreaking story of friendship and devastating loss concerning two boys living in Nazi-occupied France. At a provincial Catholic boarding school, the precocious youths enjoy true camaraderie—until a secret is revealed. Based on events from writer-director Malle’s own childhood, the film is a subtle, precisely observed tale of courage, cowardice, and tragic awakening.


Ararat
2002 · 1h 55m
country: Canada
Interrogated by a customs officer, a young man recounts how his life was changed during the making of a film about the Armenian genocide.


Unicorn Wars
2022 · 1h 33m
country: Belgium
An army of bear cubs train and indoctrinate young recruits for the war against the unicorns, which threatens the safety of the cubs. Brothers Bluey and Tubby, along with a group of inexperienced cadets, are sent on a dangerous mission to save the Magic Forest, where the unicorns live, and start a terrible battle.


The Last Metro
1980 · 2h 11m
country: France
In occupied Paris, an actress wed to a Jewish theater owner must keep him hidden from the Nazis while doing both of their jobs.


Joyeux Noel
2005 · 1h 56m
country: Belgium
France, 1914, during World War I. On Christmas Eve, an extraordinary event takes place in the bloody no man's land that the French and the Scots dispute with the Germans…


Gauze
2025 · 8m
country: France
14-year-old Zain, a Palestinian swimming champion, faces war and man-made famine. He becomes the sole caregiver to his little brother. When aid drops into the sea, desperate for food, Zain is forced to swim - not for passion, but for survival.


Days of Glory
2006 · 2h 8m
country: Algeria
1943. They have never stepped foot on French soil but because France was at war, Said, Abdelkader, Messaoud and Yassir enlist in the French Army, along with 130,000 other “indigenous” soldiers, to liberate the “fatherland” from the Nazi enemy. Heroes that history has forgotten...


Red Jungle
2022 · 1h 31m
country: France
Saturday, March 1st 2008. Commander Raul Reyes, number 2 of the FARC, died in the jungle under the ton of bombs dropped by the CIA and the Colombian army. Along with his corpse, the soldiers retrieved his computers: ten years of emails written by the man in charge of negotiating the release of a hundred of hostages (including Ingrid Betancourt), who also acted as the head of foreign affairs of the oldest communist guerrilla in the world. An amazing testimony where we meet politicians, journalists, arms dealers, diplomats, hitmen, his close relations and even his kids. “RED JUNGLE” delves into the mindset of this man who ruled the FARC with an iron fist, as the revolutionary utopia was slowly sinking into nightmare.


Now Where Did the Seventh Company Get to?
1973 · 1h 35m
country: France
1940: During the chaotic running fights of the French army the 7th company disappears - nobody knows they've been taken captive. Only their scouting patrol, three witty but lazy guys, can escape and now wanders around behind the German lines. They'd like to just stay out the fights, but a Lieutenant urges them to use a captured truck to break through to their troops.


Austerlitz
1960 · 2h 46m
country: France
Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself emperor and fights the English, Austrians and Russians in 1802.


Diplomacy
2014 · 1h 24m
country: France
On the night of August 24, 1944, the fate of Paris rests with General von Choltitz, who plans to destroy the city on Hitler's orders. As the general prepares to detonate explosives throughout the capital, Swedish consul Raoul Nordling uses diplomacy in a desperate bid to convince him to defy the orders and save Paris.


Sarah's Key
2010 · 1h 51m
country: France
On the night of 16 July 1942, ten year old Sarah and her parents are being arrested and transported to the Velodrome d'Hiver in Paris where thousands of other jews are being sent to get deported. Sarah however managed to lock her little brother in a closet just before the police entered their apartment. Sixty years later, Julia Jarmond, an American journalist in Paris, gets the assignment to write an article about this raid, a black page in the history of France. She starts digging archives and through Sarah's file discovers a well kept secret about her own in-laws.


The French Revolution
1989 · 5h 35m
country: United Kingdom
A history of the French Revolution beginning from the decision of the king to convene the Etats-Generaux in 1789 in order to deal with France's debt problem. Part one spans the event until August 10, 1792 (when the King Louis XVI lost all authority and was imprisoned). Part two carries the story through the end of the terror in 1794.


Female Agents
2008 · 1h 57m
country: France
May 1944, a group of French servicewomen and resistance fighters are enlisted into the British Special Operations Executive commando group under the command of Louise Desfontaines and her brother Pierre. Their mission, to rescue a British army geologist caught reconnoitering the beaches at Normandy.
French cinema invented much of what we consider film language, then reinvented it again with the Nouvelle Vague of the late 1950s. It remains Europe's most prolific film industry, with a strong tradition of state support for auteur work.
War films range from combat spectacle to anti-war argument, and often try to be both at once. The genre is a reliable index of how a country understands its own history.