De Gaulle () is a 2026 two-part epic biographical drama film directed by Antonin Baudry, co-written with Bérénice Vila, and based on the nonfiction book A Certain Idea of France: The Life of Charles de Gaulle by Julian Jackson. It stars Simon Abkarian as Charles de Gaulle, and follows the general as a leading figure in the French Resistance during the Second World War. It also stars Niels Schneider, Thierry Lhermitte, Benoît Magimel, Anamaria Vartolomei, and Simon Russell Beale. This is the biggest French film project of 2026.
The first part, De Gaulle: Résistance, also distributed as De Gaulle: Tilting Iron (), had its world premiere out of competition at the 2026 Cannes Film Festival on 20 May, followed by its theatrical release in France by Pathé on 3 June.
The second part, De Gaulle: Liberté, also distributed as De Gaulle: The Sovereign Edge (), was released in theaters in France on 26 June.
Plot
The diptych follows Charles de Gaulle from the collapse of France in 1940 to the Liberation of Paris in 1944, interweaving his political struggle with large-scale military campaigns, the clandestine Resistance in occupied France and the personal stories of those who join the fight. Alongside the historical events, the films include a romantic storyline between the young resistance fighters Fernand and Livia, while de Gaulle's tempestuous relationships with Winston Churchill and the Allied leadership frequently provide moments of humour amid the war and political confrontation.
First Part - De Gaulle: Résistance
In June 1940, the French Army is collapsing under the German invasion. Brigadier General Charles de Gaulle, convinced that the war will continue beyond the fall of metropolitan France, clashes with the increasingly defeatist political leadership. When Paul Reynaud's government falls and Marshal Philippe Pétain announces that France will seek an armistice, de Gaulle refuses to accept defeat.
With his aide Geoffroy Chodron de Courcel, he escapes to London. There he attempts to persuade British Prime Minister Winston Churchill that France is still in the war, despite having neither a government, an army nor significant political support behind him. Churchill is intrigued by the virtually unknown French general's extraordinary self-confidence, beginning an alliance marked throughout the film by affection, exasperation and increasingly theatrical arguments.
Allowed access to the BBC, de Gaulle broadcasts the Appeal of 18 June, asking French soldiers, engineers and civilians to continue the struggle. The response is initially tiny. While de Gaulle behaves as though he already represents France, British officials frequently remind him that almost nobody has yet recognised his authority. Assisted by his entourage, including his secretary Blazej, he begins improvising the institution of what will become Free France.
In occupied Paris, seventeen-year-old high-schooler Fernand Bonnier de La Chapelle refuses to accommodate himself to German rule. He meets Livia, a young woman equally determined to resist, and their political rebellion gradually becomes a love affair.
Fernand and other students help organise the 11 November 1940 demonstration around the Arc de Triomphe, openly defying the German occupation. The protest is violently dispersed. Fernand and Livia become increasingly involved in resistance activity, their relationship developing as the risks surrounding them grow.
De Gaulle meanwhile discovers that declaring France still at war is easier than creating the forces capable of proving it. After the British attack the French fleet at Mers-el-Kébir, killing French sailors to prevent the ships from falling into German hands, his position becomes even more precarious. Vichy portrays him as a British puppet, while de Gaulle loses much of his support.
Unable to rely on metropolitan territory, he turns toward the French colonial empire. A succession of audacious missions and political gambles brings several African territories into the Free French camp. De Gaulle travels through Africa himself, while officers such as Philippe Leclerc begin transforming scattered colonial forces into an army.
Not every gamble succeeds. The Anglo-Free French expedition against Dakar ends disastrously when the colony refuses to rally and Vichy forces fire on the attackers. De Gaulle, humiliated and increasingly isolated, nevertheless refuses to abandon his claim to represent a France that has not surrendered.
at the Battle of Bir Hakeim.]] Free French soldiers soon gave military substance to this claim. In the desert, Leclerc led increasingly daring operations against Axis positions. Meanwhile, General Pierre Kœnig commanded the Free French forces at Bir Hakeim, covering the British army's retreat in 1942.
Surrounded by Rommel’s vastly superior armored divisions, Kœnig’s men withstood German and Italian attacks for 13 days, enduring artillery, armored, and air assaults during one of the film's major battle sequences.
On the night of June 10–11, 1942, French forces broke through the Axis encirclement to reach British lines. The film depicts British ambulance driver Susan Travers driving General Kœnig’s car through a relentless barrage of fire before reaching the British army.
The resistance and final breakthrough of the French forces, previously considered a marginal element, transformed them into a military presence the Allies can no longer easily dismiss.
The war changes again when the United States enters the conflict. President Franklin D. Roosevelt distrusts de Gaulle, regarding him as difficult, unpredictable and potentially authoritarian. American officials search for French leaders who might provide an alternative.
Following Operation Torch, Allied troops land in French North Africa. Rather than immediately handing power to de Gaulle's movement, the Americans reach an agreement with Admiral François Darlan, one of the most senior figures of the Vichy regime. To de Gaulle, who has spent two years refusing any compromise with Vichy, the arrangement is intolerable.
Fernand, now in Algiers, reaches the same conclusion from a very different path. His youthful resistance in Paris, his relationship with Livia and his experiences under the occupation have led him into a struggle whose political consequences are now much larger than himself. Convinced that leaving Darlan in power betrays everything for which the Resistance has fought, he decides to act.
On 24 December 1942, Fernand enters Darlan's headquarters and shoots him. He is immediately arrested. After a rapid trial, the twenty-year-old is sentenced to death and executed by firing squad on 26 December.
Darlan's death removes one obstacle to de Gaulle, but it does not resolve the struggle for control of French North Africa. The Americans now place their hopes in another French general, Henri Giraud, setting the stage for a confrontation over who will ultimately speak for France.
Second Part - De Gaulle: Liberté
The second film begins in 1943 with the struggle taking place simultaneously in government offices, clandestine apartments and on the battlefield. De Gaulle is no longer the almost solitary exile of 1940, but victory has created a new danger: France may be liberated without being allowed to determine its own political future.
In the Libyan desert, General Leclerc leads the forces of Free France northwards from Chad. His campaign culminates in fighting around Ksar Ghilane, where French troops face German armour and air attacks. Leclerc's aggressive leadership and willingness to take extraordinary risks make the African campaign one of the central action threads of the second film.
In France, Jean Moulin, operating under the name "Rex", is charged by de Gaulle with bringing together the deeply divided movements of the French Resistance. Livia, continuing the struggle after Fernand's death, becomes part of this underground world of couriers, coded messages, clandestine meetings and German surveillance.
Moulin must persuade Gaullists, communists, socialists, conservatives, trade unionists and independent resistance organisations to accept a common political structure. Their disagreements concern not only how to fight the occupation but what France should become after liberation.
On 27 May 1943, Moulin succeeds in bringing representatives of the major resistance organisations together to form the National Council of the Resistance. For de Gaulle, the achievement is decisive: while Roosevelt questions his legitimacy abroad, the organised Resistance inside France increasingly recognises him as its political leader.
Moulin's success also makes him a major target of the Gestapo. He is betrayed and arrested with other resistance leaders at Caluire-et-Cuire. Interrogated and tortured under Klaus Barbie, he refuses to disclose the organisation he has helped construct. He dies after his arrest, but the unified Resistance survives him.
At the same time, another confrontation is unfolding in Algiers. Roosevelt supports General Henri Giraud, whose large Army of Africa and more accommodating attitude make him attractive to the Americans. Giraud has military power and Allied backing; de Gaulle possesses the political legitimacy of the Resistance and refuses to compromise on the restoration of the French Republic.
Forced into an uneasy partnership, the two generals become co-presidents of the newly created French Committee of National Liberation. Their supposed partnership rapidly turns into a political duel. De Gaulle challenges Giraud over the continued presence of officials associated with Vichy, manoeuvres for support within the committee and gradually strips his rival of political influence.
The diplomatic struggle frequently becomes as combative as the fighting in the desert. De Gaulle argues with Churchill, confronts American representatives and refuses demands that he believes would reduce France to a subordinate Allied power. His obstinacy alternately infuriates and amuses Churchill, whose own friendship with de Gaulle survives repeated explosions between the two men.
Giraud is eventually marginalised, leaving de Gaulle as the dominant leader of fighting France. Yet Roosevelt still refuses to give him everything he wants. American plans contemplate administering liberated French territory under Allied military authority, while de Gaulle insists that the French Republic has never ceased to exist and that French officials must assume authority immediately as German forces retreat.
After the Normandy landings in June 1944, the military and political struggles begin to converge. Allied armies advance across France while Leclerc commands the 2nd Armored Division, eager to fulfil the promise he and his men have carried since their African campaigns: to return to Paris.
In August, the Resistance launches an insurrection in Paris. Barricades appear in the streets and fighting erupts between resistance fighters and German forces. Livia experiences the liberation from inside the city, connecting the underground struggle begun by the young resisters of the first film with the approaching armies of Free France.
The Allied high command initially intends to bypass Paris and pursue the retreating German army. De Gaulle insists that the capital cannot be abandoned, while Leclerc presses to advance. Eventually, Dwight D. Eisenhower authorises the French division to move on the city.
Leclerc's troops race toward Paris. After years of fighting across Africa and Europe, elements of the division enter the capital as Resistance forces continue battling the German garrison. French and Spanish soldiers of the division penetrate the centre of the city, and the liberation becomes the culmination of the film's parallel stories of soldiers, politicians and underground fighters.
The German occupation collapses and Paris returns to French control.