Niels Arestrup was a French actor, film director and screenwriter. His father was Danish and his mother was French. He has won two César Awards for Best Supporting Actor for De battre mon cœur s'est arrêté and Un prophète, both films where he was directed by Jacques Audiard.
Based on the novel, the lives of three (an orphaned Nazi boy, a young blind girl, and a german official obsessed with hunting a valuable gem) are intertwined in this epic story of war, family, and morality.