Joyeux Noel (2005)

Joyeux Noel (Merry Christmas) is based on a true story set on Christmas Eve 1914 during the trench warfare of World War I on the Western Front (here is a link to the true story).
The story centers mainly upon six main characters: Gordon (a Lieutenant of the Royal Scots Fusiliers); Audebert (a French Lieutenant in the 26th Infantry and reluctant son of a general); Horstmayer (a Jewish German Lieutenant of the 93rd Infantry); Palmer (a Scottish priest working as a stretcher-bearer); and German tenor Nikolaus Sprink and his Danish lover, soprano Anna Sörensen (two famous opera stars).
The movie takes a look at the English, Scottish and Germans and we can see that they are all just humans, waiting for the brutal war to end so they can go on with their lives. Sprink, at home on a one day furlough says "All these fat, sated men parading, swilling champagne." It's clear to see that the movie is blaming the militarists for the war. The opera singer tells his lover that he must leave, to return to the front, to sing for his comrades on Christmas Eve.
As a Scotsman plays the bagpipes the troops sing and the Germans listen, also thinking of home. The German opera singer sings Silent Night, as the Germans put up lit Christmas trees outside their trenches and the English and Scottish applaud at the end.
The bagpiper then plays 'Oh Come All Ye Faithful', and the opera singer gets out of the trench singing, and brings a little tree over to the Scottish line. A ceasefire is arranged for Christmas Eve as the officers meet in the middle. The men come out and fraternize and you are forced to examine the insanity of war.
And then, the next day, the officers arrange for their dead to be buried, and the truce is extended. We then hear the sound of a whistle, and 79 minutes into the movie, a soccer game breaks out. The scene is short, but it was real, and clearly shows the futility, absurdity and insanity of war.
The love story distracted from the movie, as did the religious subplot. But, overall a really good movie. There wasn't much soccer played but soccer is a good methaphor for what this movie is really about.

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The historical records say "With the Truce in full swing up and down the line there were a number of recorded games of soccer, although these were really just 'kick-abouts' rather than a structured match.
On January 1, 1915, the London Times published a letter from a major in the Medical Corps reporting that in his sector the British played a game against the Germans opposite and were beaten 3-2."