‘De Gaulle’ Teaser: First Images Of Epic Two-Part Charles De Gaulle Biopic Unveiled

More than five years in the making, Antonin Baudry’s French-language two-part biopic De Gaulle will finally hit the big screen in France next year.

Pathé lifted the lid of the production on Monday, unveiling first images and a teaser, and describing the movie duology as one its most ambitious undertakings to date.

The two movies titled De Gaulle: Tilting Iron and De Gaulle: The Sovereign Edge will release in France on 10 June and July 3, 2026 respectively.

Billed as a “historical saga and geopolitical thriller”, the films revisit  decisive episodes of World War Two through the eyes of General Charles de Gaulle and the men and women who refused to surrender as the French nation fell apart.

It opens in June, 1960, as France collapses and signs the armistice, and De Gaulle, a then little known general, flees to London with one irrational conviction that the battle for France is neither over, nor lost.

The film also explores the complex relationship with Sir Winston Churchill, portrayed by Simon Russell Beale.

Former French diplomat Baudry, who made made his directorial debut with submarine thriller Wolf’s Call, has tapped into his past profession for the film.

“I often wondered what kind of person it took to refuse to surrender in 1940 — to disobey their own government while devoting their life to France.  Few people can do this. I became fascinated by them, so much so that I wanted to make not one film, but two,” he said.

Simon Abkarian plays de Gaulle and is joined by an ensemble that includes Benoît Magimel, Mathieu Kassovitz, Niels Schneider and Karim Leklou, Florian Lesieur and Anamaria Vartolomei.

The film is based on the book De Gaulle: A Certain Idea of France by Julian Jackson — one of the foremost reference works on de Gaulle and Free France, praised by both French and British critics.