An upper-class corporal is captured by the Germans during their 1940 invasion of France. Assisted and accompanied by characters as diverse as a morose dairy farmer, a waiter, a myopic intellectual, a working-class Parisian, and a German dental assistant, the corporal tries to escape from prison camps, sometimes making it a few yards, sometimes reaching the border.
Jean-Pierre Cassel
Caporal
Claude Brasseur
Papa
Claude Rich
Ballochet
Jacques Jouanneau
Émile, aka 'Penche-à-gauche', waiter
Mario David
'Caruso', amateur athlete, insurance agent
Jean Carmet
Guillaume aka 'Le Fermier'
Philippe Castelli
'L'électricien'
Guy Bedos
The stuttering prisoner
O.E. Hasse
Drunk traveler on the train
Cornelia Froboess
Erika Schmidt
Sacha Briquet
Escapee disguised as an old woman
Raymond Jourdan
Hippolyte Dupieu
