Sous le Manteau


Sous le Manteau is a French documentary consisting of footage shot clandestinely by French officers held during World War II in Oflag XVII-A, a POW camp in northeastern Austria.

Background and filming

was a prisoner-of-war camp operated by Nazi Germany in Austria, on the border of Czechoslovakia. Its 40 barracks housed two million French prisoners of war captured during the Battle of France. According to Robert Christophe, in his making-of booklet on the film, Oflag XVII-A had a Gaullist resistance group called "La Maffia", which had ties to a French Resistance group, and thus acquired the materials for the camera.
Taking advantage of humanitarian packages from France, the prisoners smuggled in materials necessary for the construction and operation of a camera. Film was sent from France in packets with food for prisoners; they were hidden in sausages and other foods, and after being developed the negatives were hidden in the heels of the prisoners' boots. Fourteen rolls were filmed by March 1945. The camera was made from a wooden box, which was hidden in a Larousse dictionary; the spine of this dictionary was capable of being opened like a shutter.

Content

The 30-minute film documents daily life in the camp, including a theater production, food distribution, as well as a surprise raid by the Nazi guards. The film even documents the digging of tunnels for several escape attempts. One, of which parts are documented in the film,they dug under the whole prison.but then they hit a problem,granite every swing of the pickaxe could be heard so the put on a show atop for the nazis whilst they dug and soon hit freedom resulted in 132 prisoners escaping; 1 week later 126 got recaptured; only six made it back to France.

Legacy

After the camp was liberated by the Soviets the rolls were hidden in a mess tin and given to the French liaison officer for General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny. A booklet by Christopher about the making of the film was published in 1948 by Éditions OPTA. Sous le Manteau has been distributed by Armor Films, with commentary by Maurice Renault and Robert Christophe.
The BBC's Christian Fraser described it as "so professional ... that on first viewing you would be forgiven for thinking it is a post-war reconstruction."