NEVER FORGET (COLETTE)

The early 20th Century French author of 'Gigi,' Colette once observed how curious grief was.

"One can resist tears and 'behave' very well in the hardest hours of grief," she observed.

"But then someone makes you a friendly sign behind a window, or one notices that a flower that was in bud only yesterday has suddenly blossomed, or a letter slips from a drawer.. and everything collapses."

Grief is unpredictable and those going through it need the time and the space to properly process it.

It is an individual experience and it can linger for decades.

American documentary filmmaker Anthony Giacchino has earned an Oscar nomination by turning to another 'Colette' wrestling with grief.

Colette Marin-Catherine is a 90 year old former member of the French Resistance.

Her entire family opposed the Nazis from the moment they invaded France, with her scribbling down as a child in her village the registrations of lorries carrying occupying soldiers as they arrived.

The family took huge risks helping underground fighters but eventually her brother Jean-Pierre was arrested and was sent to Mittlebrau-Dora where he and his fellow detainees were forced to work underground on the Nazis' V2 missiles around the clock.

Jean-Pierre died three weeks before American soldiers liberated the camp.

Angry about his treatment, Colette has refused to set foot in Germany for 74 years.

She is also dismissive of the "morbid tourism" that has sprung up in recent decades around visiting concentration camps.

However approaching her final years, she has decided to confront her grieving after decades of mourning and seek closure by visiting the camp where Jean-Pierre died.

She agrees to go to Germany, accompanied by a young history student called Lucie who works in a museum that remembers each person from their region who was sent to their death in a Nazi concentration camps.

Lucie, who is researching Jean-Pierre's life, is excited to have access to a member of the French Resistance who is still alive and she is warmly received by Colette.

However Colette is also no wilting lily and she doesn't soft soap her experiences while being interviewed by the younger woman on the train journey to Nordhausen in Germany.

When they arrive in Nordhausen, a well meaning former Mayor is so excited by Colette's arrival that he arranges dinner for them in a local restaurant and launches into a speech about Germany's shame about what the Nazis did.

In a jaw droppingly awkward scene, Colette is unimpressed and becomes so upset she insists on him abruptly ending his speech because she doesn't want to hear it.

As Giacchino's documentary progresses, we realise just how raw and deep Colette's grief is and we appreciate the emotional scars that she has been carrying around for 74 years.

Tears don't just flow during the visit, they gush as Catherine and Lucie tour the Mittlebrau-Dora site, with the younger woman as profoundly shaken as her companion.

A meditation on grief and the need for closure, 'Colette' also becomes a very touching short film about friendship across the generations.

Giacchino's 25 minute documentary short also reminds us of the importance of ensuring future generations understand the full extent of the horrors perpetrated by the Nazis and are never hoodwinked by those who deny the atrocities ever happened.

Colette can be prickly and blunt at times during the filn but she has more than earned the right to be.

Lucie is taken aback when Colette says she wasn't really that close to Jean-Pierre when he was alive.

However it is clear she is haunted how a life which had so much promise was extinguished.

Colette also nurses a deep emotional wound of having been told once by her mother that she wished it had been her who was arrested and not her brother.

Giacchino delivers a deeply affecting short film about the impact of war on those left to mourn.

As Colette poetically describes the birdsong they hear while sitting on a bench in Mittlebrau-Dora, you could be forgiven for thinking you are watching a classy drama featuring two French actresses from different generations.

But this is very real grief being captured onscreen in one of the most touching films you will see this year.

Produced by Oculus and Respawn Entertainment as part of a virtual reality documentary gallery for the Second World War video game 'Medal of Honour: Above and Beyond,' it has been given wider audience exposure through the Guardian newspaper's website and on YouTube.

It is also the first Oscar nominated film to emanate from a video game studio.

But that is the least of its achievements.

The greatest achievement of 'Colette' is the way it drives home to all generations the cost of war and the personal price paid by those who resisted the cruelty of the Nazis.

As the last remaining children of the Second World War die, it is vital their memories do not die with them.

It is right to forgive but we can never forget. 

('Colette' was made available on the Guardian newspaper's website on November 18, 2020)