This four-hour long documentary, which concerns French cooperation and collaboration with the German Nazi occupation in World War II, was originally contracted by French state television. When they saw footage from it, French TV refused to air it or have anything to do with it. It was too damning, and shot holes into too many fond but incorrect notions (i.e., that the Resistance was all-pervasive in France). Indeed, the filmmakers were more-or-less blacklisted and thereafter could not work in French television. Still incomplete, it was finished with the help of Swiss and German state television, and it proved to be a huge success in Switzerland and West Germany. When it was finally shown in movie theaters in France, it had, unexpectedly, a very successful run there as well. While it still excites controversy in France, this documentary inspired the work of filmmaker Louis Malle (Lacombe Lucien) and others. The English-language release goes under the name The Sorrow and the Pity.