Screen adaptation — pack
A true story nobody has yet put on screen.
“Mental d'acier” follows the real journey of an Alsatian conscripted by force: 10,000 km, two escapes, the Carpathians on foot, the Yugoslav Partisans. The book won the Historical Novel Prize at the Strasbourg Book Fair in 2023. Audiovisual and translation rights are negotiated directly with the author.
Logline
A 32-year-old man, forced into the enemy's uniform, crosses 10,000 km of Europe at war to get home — and becomes a partisan along the way.
Why this story
Five assets, rarely found together
An untouched angle
The prize jury put it plainly: this research into the resistance of forcibly conscripted men in Yugoslavia “is not widely known in France”. A corner of the Second World War almost absent from the screen.
A naturally serial shape
The story advances geographically: Alsace, the Eastern Front, the Danube, the Carpathians, the Balkans, Bosnia, Italy, the return. Each territory is an episode, with its own threat and its own ally.
A protagonist who carries it alone
Neither hero nor traitor: a man trapped on the wrong side with a single objective — to get home. The dramatic engine reads instantly, in any language.
A documented foundation
The account rests on memories gathered directly from the witness, and on official records — Croix du Combattant, escaped-prisoner status, Combatant's Diploma.
Backing from the French Ministry of the Armed Forces
The MCIC (Mission Cinéma et Industries Créatives) of the French Ministry of the Armed Forces supports the feature-film or series project by putting the army's facilities at our disposal: shooting locations, sets, equipment, costumes, and actor training by career soldiers…
Proposed arc
Nine episodes, nine territories
A breakdown proposed by the author from the material of the novel. It is indicative and entirely open to discussion with a writers' room.
The summons
Annexed Alsace. A 32-year-old man, a wife, children, a trade — and a letter. The departure, the promise.
Posting zone
The Eastern Front. Wearing the enemy's uniform, firing towards your own country's allies, and saying nothing.
The desertion
The Soviet assault. The decision to slip away. Romania, the Danube, the Balkans. You do not retreat, you disappear.
The Carpathians
Pure survival: the mountains, hunger, ground bark, whatever is under the stones. An almost wordless episode.
The Partisans
18 April 1944. He needs a side. A man saved, a nom de guerre, a brotherhood. Drvar. The pilot. Tito.
Italy
Udine. A shifting war where an accent can kill you. The railway bridge sabotage. A capture. An escape.
The Balkans
Skopje, Niš. The concentration camp. Mitrovica. The counter-attack. The horror. Death. Blood. The flight.
Exile
Zagreb. A second capture. A second escape. The end of the war. The Partisans' revenge. Exile.
The promise
The return. A door, a wife, children who grew up without him. What war leaves of a man.
Characters
Many roles,
strong characters
Papa Joe — Neither a career soldier nor an early résistant: a man who calculates, absorbs and keeps moving. His weapon is his mind.
Catherine — the wife left behind in Alsace. The through-line and the finish line; a possible second narrative strand on the civilian, occupied side.
Alfred — a fellow Alsatian conscript, his friend; Fritz — his German officer, who stands by him to the death; Karl, Hans — German soldiers.
Goran — the partisan commander who gives him back a place among the living; Ivo, Mirko — partisans, his brothers in arms.
Anna, Valeria, Zoran, Martina — decisive encounters along the way.
The names and scenes above appear in the novel. Full adaptation freedom remains open.
Production
A European project,
by nature
- Territories: France — Alsace, Germany, Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, Bulgaria, the Carpathians, Serbia, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Italy, Austria.
- Natural co-production: France, Germany, the Balkans, Italy.
- Languages: French, Alsatian, German, English, Serbo-Croatian — multilingualism is a dramatic engine, not a constraint.
- Format: limited series, 6 to 9 × 45–52 min, or a feature film.
Rights & contact
Let's talk directly.
Audiovisual and translation rights are negotiated with the author, with no intermediary. A full pack — detailed synopsis, screenplay, statements of intent, archive documents — is sent on request to producers, agents, screenwriters and publishers, French or foreign.
contact@daniel-auber.fr — quick reply, in French, German or English.