Louis Descols

Madagascar, at the turn of the 1960s and 1970s. On an air base of the French army, the soldiers live the last carefree years of colonialism. Influenced by his readings of Fantômette, Thomas, a child who is not yet 10 years old, gradually forges a look at the world around him.

In a bizarre Breton library that collects rejected, never published manuscripts, a young editor discovers a novel that she considers a masterpiece. It was written by a certain Henri Pick, a cook who died two years earlier and who, according to his widow, had never read a book in his life or written anything but a shopping list... Did he have a secret life? When the book becomes a huge best-seller, Jean- Michel Rouche, a skeptical and stubborn literary critic, teams up with Joséphine, Pick’s daughter, to unravel the mystery.

Indochina, 1945. While the French are harassed by both the Japanese army and the Vietnamese rebels, private Robert Tassen, driven by the memory of a tragedy of which he is the only survivor, embarks on the search for the mysterious and cruel Võ Bình Yên, one of the leaders of the insurrection.

Martinique, 1942. Rose, a young teacher, is fired from her job by the Vichy regime of Admiral Robert. Rose seeks to leave the island by boat with a group of fellow dissidents. Her plans are thwarted by the landing on the island of a German officer, and her meeting with Jacques Meyer, the captain of the local navy. A strange confrontation between the German officer, Captain Meyer and rebellious Rose then begins.

In 1960s France, 16-year-old Hannah Goldman is experiencing a painful adolescence. Her Jewish background and plain appearance make her an object of ridicule, but she has a talent for music and is determined to fulfil her ambition to play in the school jazz band.