Au Revoir Les Enfants (1987)

Event information

Re-released to mark Holocaust Memorial Day earlier this year, this heartbreaking story based on events from writer-director Malle’s own childhood is a subtle, precisely observed tale of courage, cowardice, and tragic awakening. Set in a provincial Catholic boarding school in Nazi-occupied France, the story follows two boys who enjoy true camaraderie until a devastating secret is revealed. Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian writes: 'It remains breathtakingly good. There is a miraculous, unforced ease and naturalness in the acting and direction; it is classic movie storytelling in the service of important themes, including the farewell that we must bid to our childhood, and to our innocence – a farewell repeated all our lives in the act of memory.'

Written and directed by Louis Malle