Augustin. My Battle of Loigny by Jean-Louis Riguet - 2015

December 1870, Loigny la Bataille (France).
The Franco-Prussian war rages. Loigny is the scene of a bloody battle. Villeprevost castle is requisitioned by the Bavarians and transformed in a field hospital.

The Prussians were deployed on the north side. The French are facing south. In the middle, in the hollow of the plain, Loigny is taken into a vise. The battle is fought for a street, a passage, a dead end, a neighborhood, a house, a cellar, for nothing. They fight, that’s all. Advance, don’t fall back, die if you must.

In a single day, around 15000 victims, 100 per square kilometers… A victim per 100 square kilometers! The former manager, Augustin, lives with his family at the castle during this warlike episode from the local history and organizes the help and distribution of the injured. Will his little adopted daughter meet love? Will they make it?

[Augustin, ma Bataille de Loigny, translated from French by Caroline Andreea Zgortea]