Au Revoir les Enfants

Set in occupied France during the Second World War, Au Revoir les Enfants centres on Julien Quentin, a boy from a bourgeois family who returns to his Catholic boarding school for the winter term. Three new pupils arrive, among them Jean Bonnet, who becomes Julien's dormitory neighbour. The two boys form a friendship, though Jean is living at the school under an assumed name: the headmaster, Father Jean, has taken in several Jewish children and is hiding their identities from the authorities. The arrangement holds until a member of staff is dismissed for trading on the black market and informs on the school. Julien's world is shaken when the Gestapo arrives to arrest the headmaster and the children he sheltered.

Louis Malle wrote, produced and directed the film, the twelfth of thirteen features he made, arriving after My Dinner with Andre and before Damage. Gaspard Manesse and Raphael Fejtö play Julien and Jean, with Philippe Morier-Genoud as Father Jean and Francine Racette as Julien's mother among a credited cast of twenty-eight. Made for about 3 million dollars, it returned roughly 5 million worldwide, a modest theatrical result that understates its long life. On IMDb it holds a 7.5 rating from 753 votes, while the critics' rating stands at 9.1 from 37 reviews, a wide gap that suggests the film's restrained treatment of its subject has resonated more strongly with reviewers than with general audiences.