It is one of several historical dramas featured in the Official Competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival, and has been highly anticipated as the latest work from Hungarian filmmaker László Nemes. The film marks Nemes’ return to the Second World War era that first brought him international acclaim with Son of Saul, while also representing his first French-language feature film.
Presented in competition for the Palme d’Or at the 79th Cannes Film Festival, Moulin tells the story of Jean Moulin, one of the most revered figures of the French Resistance. Rather than offering a conventional cradle-to-grave biography, the film focuses on the final months of Moulin’s life in 1943. Tasked by General Charles de Gaulle with unifying the various resistance movements operating in Nazi-occupied France, Moulin works in secrecy while constantly threatened by betrayal and arrest. Eventually captured by the Gestapo in Lyon and interrogated by the notorious Klaus Barbie, he endures torture without revealing information that could compromise the Resistance network.
The film stars French actor Gilles Lellouche as Jean Moulin, with German actor Lars Eidinger portraying Klaus Barbie. Supporting cast members include Louise Bourgoin, Félix Lefebvre and Marcin Czarnik. Shot on 35mm film by cinematographer Mátyás Erdély, a longtime collaborator of Nemes, Moulin was produced by Alain Goldman and written by Olivier Demangel. The project was filmed largely in France and seeks to immerse viewers in the atmosphere of occupied Europe rather than simply recount historical events.
In interviews and at the Cannes press conference, Nemes emphasized that he was not interested in making a traditional historical biopic. Speaking about the origins of the project, he explained: “My ambition was not to make a biopic, but to immerse the viewer into the life of a man whose last moments are unknown.” He also described Moulin as “one of the iconic figures representing what is good in Western civilization.”
The director further explained his visual approach to the film, noting that he wanted audiences to experience events from close proximity rather than as distant observers. “I wanted the viewer to be one of Jean Moulin’s comrades,” he said, adding that the goal was to place audiences inside the uncertainty and danger that surrounded resistance activities in wartime France.
Nemes has built a distinguished career exploring history, memory and moral complexity. Born in Budapest in 1977, he worked as an assistant director before making his feature debut with Son of Saul (2015). The film, set inside Auschwitz, won the Grand Prix at Cannes and later earned the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He followed it with Sunset (2018), a visually ambitious drama set in Budapest before the First World War. Moulin is his third feature film and continues his interest in examining individuals caught within turbulent historical moments.
The Cannes Film Festival website highlighted Nemes’ determination to portray Jean Moulin as a human being rather than a mythic national symbol. The director argued that contemporary audiences can still relate to Moulin’s choices because the struggle between courage and fear remains universal. Before the festival premiere, Nemes described the Resistance leader as a figure whose story “reverberates until today,” calling him “a man who embodies civilisation against barbarism.”
By focusing on the final ordeal of one of France’s most celebrated resistance heroes, Moulin combines historical drama with an intensely personal perspective.
Moulin which was made in 35mm highlights the advanced film processing and postproduction expertise developed at Hungary’s NFI Filmlab. Headed by Viktória Sovák, the facility is among the few laboratories in Europe still capable of delivering a complete analogue postproduction workflow. Moulin was the only film at this year’s Cannes Festival, that was screened from a 35mm positive print.
Credits:
Moulin (France)
Directed by László Nemes
Production: Pitchipoï Productions, Montmartre Films and TF1 Films Production (co-producer). Moulin was filmed and completed in Budapest in collaboration with Hungarian production partner and service company Pioneer Pictures.
