‘Victory or Death’ Story of French Counterrevolutionaries Premieres in US

When the newly founded French Republic tried to force submission to its regime and stamp out the remains of French faith and culture in 1793, its greatest impediment was a group of peasants in the Vendée. Directors Paul Mignot and Vincent Mottez tell the story of the Catholic resistance to the ideologies of the French Revolution in their film “Victory or Death.” 

Released in France in 2023, the film premiered in the United States on May 17 at the Trump Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage, secured the rights to produce the film in the United States.

“The ideas that emanated from the French Revolution are alive today, and I am not scared to say what’s politically incorrect—and that is radicalism, liberalism, and the woke attempting to attack Catholics because they believe in God, family, and country,” Brown said.

“All of these ideas came from the French Revolution, and it was no coincidence that they took our priests and got rid of our priests, and they put up a goddess of reason in Notre Dame and asked us all to worship her. No, we won’t. And these men who died and women who died in the Vendée are our heroes, and we should know who they are.” 

Starring Hugo Becker as François Athanase Charette de la Contrie, the film portrays how Charette led the peasants of the Vendée in a counterrevolution against the French Republic’s conscription of 300,000 troops and massacre of Catholic priests. At first reluctant to join the peasants in what he believes is a hopeless fight against trained military, Charette comes to be known as “King of the Vendée” for his brilliant guerilla warfare that time and time again thwarts the Army of the Republic.

“We are living in a time where globalism takes over everything, where the single person and the single little, small community doesn’t seem to count anymore,” Archduke Eduard Habsburg-Lothringen said. “And this is a story of a small local community making a stand against an unjust regime that wants to suppress them, and I think it’s a very good lesson. Sometimes, you have to take matters into your hands when the government doesn’t respect the single citizens anymore, and sometimes you have to give your life for a cause, and I think that’s very, very important.”

“Victory or Death” portrays a hero not only for the French, but for Americans as well, and all who cherish human freedom.

“In his life, Charette fought for two causes: America—where he was a hero of the War of Independence—and the Vendée. These two causes are united under a single banner: the freedom of peoples,” executive producer Guillaume Allaire said. “The struggle and sacrifice of Charette and the people of the Vendée leave us with a legacy: that of conscience standing upright against every form of totalitarianism that seeks to enslave mankind.”

In honor of the 40,000 Catholics in the Vendée who suffered horrible deaths at the hands of the Republic’s Infernal Columns, “Victory or Death” captures the determination of the French people to cling to their faith and their heritage, regardless of the sacrifice.

“I’ve studied film. I love film—every genre under the sun, every age of it. And it is wonderful to see a film with such phenomenal values well made,” coalitions and policy advisor Drew Bowling said. “This is not a Christian or Catholic movie. It succeeds first as a film but is lifted up in part because it showcases those values, which again are universal, and does so artfully through a gripping and dramatic lens, and that combination is incredibly rare.”

The film is available for streaming and DVD or Blu-ray purchase at victoryordeathmovie.com, and will soon be accessible on major streaming sites.