au revoir les enfants

last night i watched one of the most touching movies i've seen for a long time. arts central's film art "au revoir les enfants" or "goodbye children".

set in the midst of world war 2, january of 1944, it focuses on a catholic school in the countryside that is hiding 3 jewish children. the main character is bonnet, a jew in hiding. we are not told explicitly that he's a jew. in fact, he hides the fact from his schoolmates, telling them that he is a protestant when they ask him why he doesn't receive communion, saying that he doesn't like pork when he's offered it. we are given some indication that bonnet isn't what he pretends to be when, when the school is visited by the militia, the teachers pull him out of class and rush him off somewhere, for no apparent reason. eventually one of his classmates, quentein finds out but keeps his secret. predictably, they become best friends after being lost together in the forest and almost getting arrested by krauts. they play the piano together, sheltering together in the school instead of the shelter during an air raid...

later on, the kitchen assisstant, joseph, a handicapped jew, is found to be stealing kitchen supplies for the black market. he is sacked. he screams unfairness since he's not the only one doing it and that the students are also involved. the students are merely grounded but he's the one who loses his job. he later denounces the school to the gestapo. the gestapo raid the school and finds the 3 jewish students. they are arrested together with the principal and the school is closed. in the final scene when they are being taken away, we are told that the 3 students died at auschwitz and the principal (a priest) died at another camp somewhere.

it's sad cos we have to keep in mind that these are just children. they are only 9, 10 years old and yet they already have to go through so much. other than that they are jews, there is absolutely nothing to distinguish them from the others. there was a scene when quentein's mother takes him and bonnet out to a restaurant (she doesn't know about bonnet) and then the militia make a raid on the restaurant and find an elderly jewish man. her comment was, "who'd have thought? such a respectable looking man." and the priest (father jean), his only crime was hiding the jewish students, out of christian charity. he preached very firey sermons on charity, so much so that one parent had walked out of his sermon in offense.

yup, the final scene was sad. it's hard for me to recreate it here. the atmosphere and all. the unfairness and the futility of it all. almost cried watching it. there's something about french movies like this that are just so poignant. sigh. *g*