Keyword German Invasion

Gustave Folcher, a French farmer, wrote in his 1939 diary that the summer had been long and hot. He was not alone. Many other anonymous French men and women wrote of the beauty and warmth of those summer months and how threats of war were far from their minds. Through home movies, diaries and letters, One Last Summer describes the final weeks of peace in France and the mix of blindness, denial and prophetic clear-sightedness of those facing the war that was about to unfold.

In June 1941, Hitler decides to break the German-Soviet pact and set the German army in motion toward Moscow. From summer to winter, and from Kiev to Leningrad, previously unseen archival footage, some recolored, retraces the bloodiest military operation of World War II. Testimonies from soldiers and civilians recount these endless months of battles and sieges.