AU REVOIR LES ENFANTS (GOODBYE CHILDREN)

| 1987 – 104′ – Drama, History, War, Classic.
Written by: Louis Malle.
Directed by: Louis Malle.
Starring: Gaspard Manesse, Raphael Fejtö, Francine Racette, Stanislas Carré de Malberg, Philippe Morier-Genoud, François Négret, Irène Jacob, François Berléand.
Official Selection Venice International Film Festival 1987. Two Academy Awards nominations: Best Foreign Language film & Best Screenplay. Nine César Awards nominations. Winner of seven César Awards including Best Film, Best Director, Best Cinematography.
In French with English subtitles.
An Orion Classic / HBO Max release. |

In 1943, Julien (Gaspard Manesse) is a student at a French boarding school. When three new students arrive, including Jean Bonnett (Raphael Fejto), Julien believes they are no different from the other boys. What Julien doesn’t know is that the boys are actually Jews who are evading capture by the Nazis. While Julien doesn’t care for Jean at first, the boys develop a tight bond — while the head of the school, Père Jean (Philippe Morier-Genoud), works to protect the boys from the Holocaust.

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ONCE IN A LIFETIME

| 2016 – 105′ – Drama, History, Coming of Age, War.
Written by: Ahmed Dramé, Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar.
Directed by: Marie-Castille Mention-Schaar.
Starring: Ariane Ascaride, Ahmed Dramé, Noémie Merlant, Geneviève Mnich, Wendy Nieto, Aïmen Derriachi, Mohamed Seddiki, Stéphane Bak.
César Award 2016 Nomination for Best Promising Actor (Ahmed Dramé).
Official Competition COLCOA 2015 (Audience Special Prize winner).
In French with English subtitles.
A Menemsha Films release. |

At the Leon Blum High School, history teacher Anne Gueguen has to face her worst nightmare, a classroom full of distracted and unruly school “rejects” – the ones other teachers have given up on. This racially and religiously diverse group of struggling but tough inner-city kids seem to only agree on one thing: history is a boring subject with no relevance in their everyday lives.  Anne has a quality that these students don’t encounter often – she actually cares about them, and she has an idea that she hopes will inspire them.  Over the objections of the head of the school, she challenges the class to enter a national history contest with a project on Children and Teenage victims of the Nazi Regime. It’s a long shot at best, because the contest is usually won by more dedicated students from better schools, but a visit from a special guest gives them a fighting chance. Based on a true story, this inspirational drama was co-written by twenty-one year old Ahmed Dramé, who was part of the original class, and plays Malik in the film.

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| 1985 – 293′ – Documentary, History, Classic, War.
Written by: Claude Lanzmann.
Directed by: Claude Lanzmann.
In French, German, Polish with English subtitles & In English.
An IFC Films release. |

Director Claude Lanzmann spent 11 years on this sprawling documentary about the Holocaust, conducting his own interviews and refusing to use a single frame of archival footage. Dividing Holocaust witnesses into three categories — survivors, bystanders and perpetrators (He had to film ex-Nazis secretly since they only agreed to be interviewed by audio) –, Lanzmann presents testimonies from survivors of the Chelmno concentration camp, an Auschwitz escapee and witnesses of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, as well as a chilling report of gas chambers from an SS officer at Treblinka. His style of interviewing by asking for the most minute details is effective at adding up these details to give a horrifying portrait of the events of Nazi genocide. He also shows, or rather lets some of his subjects themselves show, that the anti-Semitism that caused 6 million Jews to die in the Holocaust is still alive in in Germany, Poland, and elsewhere. A Nine and a half hour work of reference presented in two parts, Shoah has been considered by international critics as one of the most important films of the 20th century.

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SHOAH (FIRST ERA)

| 1985 – 274′ – Documentary, History, Classic, War.
Written by: Claude Lanzmann.
Directed by: Claude Lanzmann.
In French, German, Polish with English subtitles & In English.
An IFC Films release. |

Director Claude Lanzmann spent 11 years on this sprawling documentary about the Holocaust, conducting his own interviews and refusing to use a single frame of archival footage. Dividing Holocaust witnesses into three categories — survivors, bystanders and perpetrators (He had to film ex-Nazis secretly since they only agreed to be interviewed by audio) –, Lanzmann presents testimonies from survivors of the Chelmno concentration camp, an Auschwitz escapee and witnesses of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, as well as a chilling report of gas chambers from an SS officer at Treblinka. His style of interviewing by asking for the most minute details is effective at adding up these details to give a horrifying portrait of the events of Nazi genocide. He also shows, or rather lets some of his subjects themselves show, that the anti-Semitism that caused 6 million Jews to die in the Holocaust is still alive in in Germany, Poland, and elsewhere. A Nine and a half hour work of reference presented in two parts, Shoah has been considered by international critics as one of the most important films of the 20th century.

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