 As World War I engulfed his country, Albert Kahn struck a deal with the French army: his team of photographers would capture images and footage that helped the war effort in exchange for direct access to militarized zones. A century later, this program presents the results—revealing the life and environment of the French soldier as recorded in Kahn’s Archive of the Planet. The visual details of trench warfare and all its misery are combined with pictures from towns, hospitals, and barracks a few miles from the front—evoking the humanity of the ordinary fighting man as well as the appalling devastation wrought by the era’s instruments of death. Contains graphic images of war wounds. A BBC/Musée Albert-Kahn (Département des Hauts-de-Seine—France) Co-production. (50 minutes)
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