TV movie. U.S. titles: Tales from the Zoo; The Greenhouse
Paris, near the end of World War II. The head of the Botanical Gardens has a son who deals in the black market and gets along fine with the Germans (or so he thinks). The son is captured, along with a few other random people, and shot in reprisal for the killing of a German officer by the Resistance. He leaves a daughter which he was raising alone (the mother is an actress). The child is taken in custody by her grandfather the botanist, who doesn't tell her that her father died; instead, he lies that the latter is a Resistance captain and is in hiding.
Dramatic comedy with a historical setting. The plot is quite childish, and not necessarily because it has a child as one of the protagonists. All the same, it is well structured and eventful enough that it doesn't become annoying. Overall, a competently done but ultimately silly movie which vaguely reminds one of Jorge Luis Borges's story Theme of the Traitor and the Hero (1944), and, from another angle, the movie Life Is Beautiful (1997).
Rating: 46
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