It's 1919 in a small German village in the aftermath of World War I. Anna (Paula Beer, in a breakout performance) is in mourning for the death of her fiancé, Frantz, killed in the trenches. At his graveside she spies a man leaving flowers. He is a Frenchman, Adrien, and he tells Anna that he and her fiancé were friends in Paris before the war.
Anna introduces him to Frantz's parents, with whom she lives, and they are won over despite their hostility to all things French. Through Adrien's memories, they can feel close to the son they lost, and Anna finds herself powerfully drawn to the sensitive and mysterious visitor.
But all is not as it seems in François Ozon's masterly study of grief, forgiveness and the consolations of illusion. Shot in somber black and white that bleeds into color at crucial moments, "Frantz" is a moving and complex portrait of a woman seeking to rebuild her life from the ashes of war."Astonishingly beautiful... a profound look at alienation and grief." Eric Kohn, Indiewire