A brave entry in the canon of Christmas films, Joyeux Nöel dares to be a dispiriting story of squandered hope. During the Great War there was an outbreak of humanity that so upset war planners they disbanded soldiers - some unlucky souls ended up on the Russian Front - whose only crime was compassion. Carion’s film concentrates on one such episode in 1914.

Three principle characters assert their nationality’s reason-d’étre for being in the frozen trenches. Scots fight alongside French against German invaders until a former singer from the Berlin Opera finds his voice on Christmas Eve. In a touching scene, he rises from the trenches to sing Silent Night and is joined by Scottish pipers. Moved, the French leader commands a seasonal toast with his enemy, actions that bring hostilities to a halt as three contingents lay down arms to take up a game of football. Can life ever return to its bloody self?

Joyeux Nöel smartly plays its hand, acknowledging the weight of historical boundary early on, then revealing secreted nuggets that pack a hefty emotional punch. Such as Lt. Hostmayer’s (Daniel Brühl) command of German, French and English for reasons that severely complicate his professional standing. With superior production design and consummate direction, this is a production of great, well, joy. Joyeux Nöel wilfully plays as a melodramatic tear-jerker with several scenes thickly layered, but steeped as it is in truth, it is easy to accommodate the film’s apparent shortcomings. Given the devastating conclusion, only the deeply cynical would cry foul.

// COLIN FRASER