Plaza Mayor Company release the original score for The Cross Roads (Enfer 44), with music by David Aboucaya. France, 1944, a platoon of allied soldiers find themselves stranded deep in enemy territory due to an order from their incompetent commanding officer. Now, trapped behind enemy lines, they must band together and fight their way to freedom...

Talking about the project, director and composer, David Aboucaya said: "This my very first feature film. It was initially a 37-minute medium-length film that wanted to pay tribute to the American soldiers who fought on our land in 1944. Following the enthusiasm of some foreign distributors, I extended the story and the shooting of the complement took place a year later in 2006, and the feature film version was released in 2007. Having reworked the editing, effects and music, a new version was released in 2013 (released in France under the title Enfer 44)."

This is an electronic score which is so close to being orchestral that it's a shame that the cost of hiring a full orchestra is so expensive. Tracks like 'Drisco's Blood', are beautifully realised here and I couldn't help wondering how much more moving they would have been if backed by an orchestra.

The score's 26 tracks (41 min, 48 sec) capture so many raw emotions and deliver so many wonderfully charged set pieces, that it's hard not to warm to it as a whole.

While it won't be to everyone's tastes, overall I found it to be a powerful, engaging soundtrack with plenty of themes to get behind.

7

Darren Rea