Winner of the Best Screenplay Award at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, A Man of His Time traces the footsteps of a man working as a Vichy government bureaucrat in German-occupied France who becomes quietly complicit in the persecution of Jewish people. In September 1940, as the Vichy regime is established in France and defeated by Germany, the penniless 49-year-old Henri Marre (Swann Arlaud) carries a self-published political treatise, Notre Salut, in his bag, viewing the situation not as a crisis but as an opportunity. Based on actual letters left behind by his own great-grandfather, director Emmanuel Marre reveals how systematically one of the 20th century’s worst crimes was organized from within the French administration. Swann Arlaud, who delivered a powerful performance as the defense lawyer in Anatomy of a Fall (2023), delves deeply into the psychology of an ordinary, opportunistic figure whose sole concern is preserving his position and privilege. Far from a typical historical period drama, the film was shot in a hyper-realistic style akin to Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest (2024), stripping away any dramatic embellishment to depict evil with an utterly mundane face.
Born in Paris, France in 1980. After working a series of odd jobs, he moved to Belgium and studied filmmaking at the IAD (Institut des Arts de Diffusion). His short film The Summer Movie (2016) won the National Competition Grand Prix at the Clermont-Ferrand International Short Film Festival, and his documentary Castle to Castle (2018) won awards at numerous festivals. His feature debut Zero Fucks Given (2021), co-directed with Julie Lecoustre and starring Adèle Exarchopoulos, premiered at Cannes′ Critics′ Week and won Belgium′s Magritte Award for Best First Feature Film. A Man of His Time was nominated for the Palme d′Or in the main competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival before going on to win the Best Screenplay award, among others. The film also screened as the opening film of the Brussels Film Festival and was invited to the Horizons section of the Karlovy Vary Film Festival.
From Busan International Film Festival 2026, No. 31
