“Desertion” by Chantal Lorang

Luxembourg Legacy is proud to present the U.S. premiere of Desertion, an award-winning short film by Chantal Lorang, of Heisdorf, Luxembourg.

The 30-minute film, written, filmed and edited by Chantal, tells the tragic story of her great uncle Josy Lorang, who was forcibly conscripted into the Nazi army during WWII. Shot on her iPhone without official funding, Chantal’s Desertion won best film award and first prize in the fiction category at the National Film Festival of Luxembourg in 2025 and a silver medal and jury prize at the international 2026 UNICA Film Festival.

UNICA Film Festival jury member Thomas Schauer wrote:

“Through outstanding photography and editing, this film creates an atmosphere that makes the cruelty of war impossible to look away from. It does not simply show violence; it brings back the memory of all the atrocities that war carries with it. This is a film that should be shown to every generation, so that we never allow ourselves to consider war again in our world.”

The horrors of war

As a young soldier in the German forces, Josy was sent to the Eastern Front, where he witnessed horrors that haunted him—the suffering of civilians, the brutality of war and the devastation left in its wake. Unable to bear what he had seen, Josy made the fateful decision to desert. He was captured by the Germans and imprisoned. In the film, a military chaplain remembers the young soldiers who ran away on the Eastern Front, including Josy, whom he looked after in prison. In the weeks before his execution, Josy wrote letters to his young wife Margot and to his parents, pouring out his fear, love and desperate hope.

 When she was a child, Chantal read one of Josy’s letters as she sat at the kitchen table with her family. Years later, the letter-reading inspired Chantal to tell Josy’s story through film. Her goal was that the film will be used for educational purposes and serve as a reminder, especially to young people, of the trauma and human cost of war. 

Our Luxembourg Legacy Presents webinar is free of charge, but participants are asked to consider a free-will, tax-deductible donation to their local Luxembourg-American organization.

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