Au Revoir les Enfants (1987)

Essential Viewing

France/Italy/West Germany

Feature Film

Original Title: Au revoir les enfants

Writer/Director: Louis Malle

Cinematographer: Renato Berta

Cast: Gaspard Manesse, Raphael Fejtö, Francine Racette, Stanislas Carré de Malberg, Philippe Morier-Genoud, François Berléand, François Négret

Based on an incident from the film-maker’s childhood, Malle’s immensely moving film – set in a catholic boarding school in German occupied France during the Second World War, portraying the friendship, built-up gradually, between an existing pupil and a new boy, who happens to be Jewish – is a beautifully crafted work, which not only provides a devastatingly tragic portrait of nightmarish times but also perfectly captures the ups and downs of boyhood. Iain.Stott