Review of Au Revoir les Enfants (1987) by David L — 09 Jan 2014

Incredibly haunting film ( a true story that happened to the film's director as a boy) about a privileged , wealthy, Catholic boarding school for boys in France during World War two. A few new boys arrive rather mysteriously and one stands out immediately for his manners, etiquette, intelligence, creativity, sensitivity, and above all abject humility and appreciation for being there.

For the first half hour of the film he is relentlessly bullied but he never complains, so grateful he is for being there. He is bullied because the other boys suspect he is different somehow and/or because of some sort of hazing philosophy.

For the most part the bullying against him stops as more and more he impresses the other students with his skills and personality. Eventually , one of the young employees, another boy, gets fired for stealing food to resell on the black market, and in his wrath he snitches on the school to the Gestapo.

It turns out the new students are secretly Jewish, and the Gestapo descends with full fury despite the fact, that by now it is certain Germany will lose the war due to the heavy Russian advance. Meanwhile, the exceptional Jewish boy has become, and in a very heartwarming gradual way, best friends with a catholic boy, who we assume represents the future director of this film.

3 boys, along with the head of the school are marched off to die in Auschwitz.