O c t o b e r 2 0 1 8 7 3 L’Esprit de L’Escalier MHz Choice A French Village (Un Village Fran- çais) is my kind of story. As a wom- an of the French heritage/culture living generations removed from France in the state of Maine, surrounded by the leg- acy of stories untold, I would be remiss if I wasn’t aware of my instant, internation- al connection to the stories coming out of France. As a literature major, studying Brit- ish literature, I wasn’t privileged to know the parallel stories of my own heritage. Call it manque de connaissances—unbeknown to many. This is part of the re-education process that’s needed, and may even be es- sential, for the members of the French heri- tage to learn their own legacy. The MHz Choice television series tells the story of the German occupation of France during World War II from the per- spective of a small village and its inhabit- ants. We’re shown the effects of the occupa- tion on their everyday lives, the confusions of allegiances, and the subsequent victory of the Allies’ realignment of the “new” lib- erated France. Under the Vichy govern- ment, the collaborators’ interactions with the German army take on a greater emo- tional weight than an ordinary exchange. The ‘colonization’ version of this story remains static and unchanged. The post- colonization version–told from the per- spective of the colonized as opposed to the rulers or ‘rescuers’–holds the possibility of becoming our future. A post-modern tell- ing explores the untold stories. It launches the story into a future configuration of new meanings that go beyond the static story told. Many of us experience the loss of our stories—Franco-Americans, Native Ameri- cans, as well as many other cultures whose stories need to be refreshed and retold. Un Village Français, winner of the Séri- emania Best Series Award, has received ex- cellent reviews and recently finished its sev- enth and final season. The series mirrors world events today by revealing how a pop- ulation, the Jews in this case, becomes vili- fied and targeted. This is a story told in French by the French about the French. It’s their world view of the complexities of the German oc- cupation that Great Britain and the U.S. were spared. The important aspect of this story’s point of view comes from the lived experiences of those on the ground and the choices they made in order to survive. Not all players are presented as ethical. Some are amoral, others gave the best of them- selves in the Resistance–though with less glamor than I thought–and paid the ulti- mate sacrifice. As ordinary citizens in the Resistance, lacking sentimentality, in all their blazing humanity, they persisted in confounding the war with their actions. I appreciate the roles women play in the se- ries as partners in telling the story, whether it’s as leaders in the community, the Resis- tance, or the Communist Party. This series engages the viewer on many levels of highs and lows—sometimes vis- ceral—to convey the outcomes of a history told from the vantage point of the French landscape. It rewrites the story while mov- ing toward the future. This is not a trium- phal narrative told from the war hero’s per- spective, but one which frees the voices of those experiencing the war of occupied France in their small village. n By Rhea Côté Robbins The same story. A new perspective. A French Village