World War II · Film · 2009
The Army of Crime
L'Armée du crime
In occupied Paris the Armenian poet Missak Manouchian, who never wanted to kill, takes command of a band of young immigrant fighters and turns them into the most effective armed resistance in the city.
Where it happened
Follow the story across 2 places.
Stop 1: Occupied Paris
Key location
Manouchian's fighters ambush German soldiers on Paris streets while French police detectives patiently shadow every one of them.
Stop 2: Fort Mont-Valérien
After a show trial, the condemned write their last letters before being taken to the fort outside Paris.
What really happened
The FTP-MOI were communist guerrilla units made up largely of immigrants: Armenians, Hungarian and Polish Jews, Spaniards and Italians. In 1943 the Paris group led by Missak Manouchian carried out dozens of attacks on German soldiers and installations, until French police tracked and arrested its members in November 1943.
Twenty-three were tried by a German military court in February 1944; 22 men were shot at Fort Mont-Valérien on 21 February, and Olga Bancic was beheaded in Stuttgart in May. The regime's propaganda poster, the Affiche rouge, branded them an army of crime, but it made them heroes. Manouchian and his wife Mélinée were moved to the Panthéon in 2024.
Where to watch
Checking streaming services…
Full details
- Original title
- L'Armée du crime
- Directed by
- Robert Guédiguian
- Countries
- France
- Languages
- French, German
- Released
- 2009
- Period
- –
- Theaters of war
- Western Europe
- Themes
- Resistance
- True story
