Au revoir les enfants. Dir. Louis Malle. Nouvelles Éditions de Films, 1987. DVD. 104 minutes.
For plot summary and other details: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092593/
Language: French
Subtitles: English, French
Setting: 1944, Marseille
Remarks: Like most World-War-II films, Au revoir les enfants offers hope amid a traumatic time. A Catholic priest protecting a Jewish boy demonstrates the morality that I believe religion teaches: humans should help humans. This shared sense of humanity becomes more important at the end when not even the Catholic boarding school is spared by the Gestapo. If evil can infiltrate a religious institution, nothing is sacred. All that people can do is watch out for each other, resisting with their own goodwill, which doesn’t always win in the short-term but resonates long into the future.
Keywords: Occupation, youth, school, faith, secrets
See also: Sarah’s Key; Hiroshima, mon amour