The Eleventh Arrondissement

ANNA DUBOIS is an entrepreneur in a Nazi occupied Paris in 1942 who owns a café, a hotel, and an apartment complex. Although her life isn’t normal since the occupation began, she feels comfortable answering to the head of the Wehrmacht, Colonel Frederick Heller. In a blink of an eye, that changes one night when Colonel GERHARD SALINGER walks in the café and announces he has taken over as the head of the Wehrmacht. Colonel Salinger has a reputation of being an aggressive and angry Nazi who doesn’t like Frenchmen.
After being demoted to overseeing the French police force, Colonel Heller continues to visit the café and begins to strike up a friendly relationship with the bartender, Raina Blanc. Initially she feels uncomfortable and tells Anna so, only to be told by Anna that he’s not a threat to her; just being pleasant. Anna and her husband, Roger who works as a foreman at the Citroen factory, have quipped the basement of their apartment complex to hide as many Jews as necessary. Aware that Jews are vulnerable under the Nazi regime, they want to protect them when they can. They even find Bridget, a twelve-year-old girl who lost her parents and adopt her as a family member.
Colonel Salinger and Colonel Heller have had a difficult time since Heller’s demotion but try to keep a professional relationship. Anna’s brother, Jacques Kauffmann, is a resistance fighter, and while he rescues Jews when he can, he is busy doing sabotage operations which sometimes reach outside of the normal boundaries of sabotage. He tries to enlist his other sister, Nicole, who is the concierge for Anna’s apartment complex. Reluctantly, she participates a few times, but is not amenable to killing other human beings even if they are Nazis.
Over time, Colonel Heller and Raina become very familiar and they begin meeting in a local park to talk away from prying eyes. Heller, dressed in civilian clothes so he can’t be identified as a Nazi, is taken with Raina who is Dutch by birth; only living in Paris for a few years. He informs her he knows he’s not supposed to be associating with Frenchwomen but doesn’t care. Raina is worried about both of them if they get caught.
Nicole is raped by a Nazi soldier in the concierge office and is taken to Les Invalides to recover. Anna is irate when she finds out and tells Colonel Heller she wants justice. After Nicole gets out of the hospital, she joins Jacques again for a sabotage operation to save the Notre Dame: angry over her rape. Unfortunately, while in the act, Nazi soldiers bear down in them. Nicole gets away, but Jacques falls and hurts his leg and is arrested and taken to prison.
Colonel Salinger visits Jacques to find out the names of his co-conspirators not realizing he’s Anna’s brother. When Anna visits Jacques, the prison warden recognizes her and tells Salinger, who now knows about Raina’s lack of French citizenship. This sets up a confrontation between Salinger and Heller. Salinger thinks Anna engages in the resistance fight, and wants to see Raina’s papers, grilling Heller about their relationship.
Worried things are coming to a head, Heller asks Anna to hide Raina and himself: no longer considering himself a Nazi. She complies. Salinger gives Jacques one last time to divulge names, but he declines, and is put on the next train to Auschwitz.
Salinger meets with Captain Heinrich Meyer, an intelligence officer, to find out information about Anna and everyone else. Meyer cannot locate Heller. Salinger, angry as hell about not finding Heller and Raina who he knows are hidden somewhere, goes to confront Anna at the café, but she’s not there. He kicks the patrons out and closes the cafe down. He goes to the Eleventh Arrondissement where Anna’s apartment is. He has soldiers arrest Nicole who is frantically packing to get out of Paris. She’s placed in a waiting vehicle and taken to a train bond for Auschwitz. He then tells his soldiers to find and bring Anna out to him.
When the soldiers bring Anna and Roger out, Salinger wants to know where Heller and Raina are. Anna tells Salinger she doesn’t know. Roger, angry and belligerent, moves forward and Salinger who shoots him, and then Anna who goes to his side. Heller appears without Raina, and they argue about Raina’s whereabouts, whereupon Salinger shoots Heller.
Air raid sirens resonate throughout the city, signaling the advent of Allied forces arriving: now August 1944. Salinger and Meyer run to a side street. Knowing it’s all over, Salinger kills Meyer and then turns the gun in himself.
A year later, in 1945, Anna reopens the café to a thankful crowd of Parisians. Raina is happy to bartend once again.
After they open the café, Anna and Bridget visit the cemetery where Roger is buried. Raina joins them out of respect. Bridget places a white rose on the grave. They verbally try to put the Nazi occupation behind them, before Anna and Bridget walk away holding hands with Raina right behind.