FORL 2620: Hidden Children

This late work from French writer-director Louis Malle tells a heartbreaking story of friendship and devastating loss concerning two boys living in Nazi-occupied France. At a provincial Catholic boarding school, the precocious youths enjoy true camaraderie--until a secret is revealed. Based on events from Malle's own childhood, the film is a subtle, precisely observed tale of courage, cowardice, and tragic awakening.

One of the first French films to address the issue of collaboration during the German occupation, Louis Malle's brave and controversial LACOMBE, LUCIEN traces a young peasant's journey from potential Resistance member to Gestapo recruit. At once the story of a nation and one troubled boy, the film is a disquieting portrait of lost innocence and guilt.

On July 16th, 1942, French authorities carried out an extensive raid of Jews in greater Paris, resulting in the arrest of more than 13,000 people -- including 4,000 children. After spending several miserable days in the Velodrome d'Hiver stadium at the apex of summer with little food or water, families were deported to internment camps elsewhere in France and then, finally, to Auschwitz -- never to be seen again.

A journalist (Kristin Scott Thomas) investigates the family history of a French Jewish woman who was arrested by the Nazis during the Vel' d'Hiv Roundup in 1942.