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This Dailymail article claims this:

Some 3,400 children ran among the graves of soldiers who died in the battle of Verdun as part of a stunt choreographed by German filmmaker Volker Schlondorff, who argued that he was 'trying to depict the chaos of the battle'

I find it hard to believe that the people in charge would agree to this. Also, perhaps it's only me, but the pictures look fake. Lastly, I couldn't find other verifiable sources of this claim.

Did people run through the military graveyards at Verdun?

JS Lavertu
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    As a military veteran, I really don't see what the issue is. They are graves, not priceless works of art. The people are dead, and if anything, children running around would probably be more pleasing to think of as opposed to some jingoistic symbolism. – JasonR Jun 01 '16 at 15:28
  • @JasonR Maybe it's a cultural issue? In some cultures, it's pretty much unimaginable to actually step onto a grave intentionally, without a veeeery good excuse. – AndrejaKo Jun 01 '16 at 20:26
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    @AndrejaKo: It should be noted that the people were running *between* the graves, not over them. I would have taken issue with the latter as well. – DevSolar Jun 02 '16 at 07:42

1 Answers1

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Yes.

The production was conducted by Volker Schlöndorff. According to Tagesschau (in their 13:15 airing of the same day), on personal request by President François Hollande, so much for "the people in charge".

DevSolar
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    I just realized that this answer could be interpreted as having an undertone that was not intended. My personal opinion on the performance: Unconventional, but neither disrespectful nor desecrating, and well-intentioned. That is good enough for me. – DevSolar Jun 01 '16 at 08:06