“Monsieur Batignole”
Coachella Valley Premiere

In the summer of 1942, Paris butcher and caterer Edmond Batignole (Gérard Jugnot) works hard and lives with his henpecking wife Micheline (Alexia Portal), daughter Marguerite (Michele Garcia) and her fiancé Pierre-Jean Lamour (Jean-Paul Rouve), who admires the Germans. Batignole inadvertently and unknowingly is partly responsible for the deportation of his Jewish neighbor’s family, but when their young son Simon (Jules Sitruk) escapes and appears at his doorstep, he feels compelled to hide him and help him escape.  This heart-warming and bittersweet story set in war-torn Paris tells the tale of a butcher who becomes an unlikely hero.  Jugnot plays Batignole as an everyman type -- never exactly hateful, never exactly admirable -- a man who is busy keeping his head down until forced to do otherwise.

Festivals: 
New Jersey Jewish Film Festival
San Francisco Jewish Film Festival
San Diego Jewish Film Festival
Cleveland International Film Festival
French Film Festival

Awards:
César Awards France – Most Promising Actor:  Jean-Paul Rouve




Writer/Director/Producer/Star:  Gérard Jugnot
Comedy/Drama
France
German/French with English subtitles
Run Time:  100 min.
Rating:  NR

Official Website with Trailer