The price of victory

Opening on an image of a statue created to celebrate the victory of World War One, this campaign then shows us the invisible wounds of the soldiers of the Great War. 

Found in war memorials across 900 towns in France, the statue of the Victorious Soldier embodies the image of a heroic, invincible soldier, forever frozen in glory. The statue used in this film, created by sculptor Eugène Bénet, opens the permanent exhibition at the Museum of the Great War in Meaux and reminds visitors that in every town across France, a war memorial honours the sacrifices made by its sons, who died for their country.

But it's what lies behind this symbol of victory that the exhibition is most interested in. Created as part of BBDO Paris’s Broken Souls campaign The Victorious Soldier film, directed by Julien Beuvry through WAD, offers a powerful new reading of this national symbol and, through a series of close-up shots of an immobile, triumphant statue, viewers are drawn into an intimate, unsettling inner journey.

Set to Remains, by Volker Bertelmann, and narrated by Finnegan Oldfield, the story gradually cracks the statue’s frozen image, showing that behind its triumphant pose sit other realities: fear, anxiety and distress.