Au revoir les enfants

During the winter of 1943–44, Julien Quentin, a student at a Carmelite boarding school in occupied France, is returning to school from vacation. He acts tough to the other students, but is actually a pampered boy who misses his mother deeply. Saddened to be returning to the monotony of boarding school, Julien's classes seem uneventful until Père Jean, the headmaster, introduces three new pupils. One of them, Jean Bonnet, is the same age as Julien. Like the other students, Julien at first despises Bonnet, a socially awkward boy with a talent for arithmetic and playing the piano.

One night, Julien wakes up and finds Bonnet wearing a kippah and praying in Hebrew. After digging through his new friend's locker, Julien learns the truth. His real name is not Bonnet, but Kippelstein. Père Jean, a compassionate, sacrificing priest at the school, had agreed to grant secret asylum to hunted Jews. After a game of treasure hunt, Julien and Jean bond and develop a close friendship.

When Julien's mother visits on Parents' Day, Julien asks his mother if Bonnet, whose parents could not come, could accompany them to lunch at a gourmet restaurant. As they sit around the table, the talk turns to Julien's father, a factory owner. When Julien's brother asks if he is still for Marshal Pétain, Madame Quentin responds, "No one is anymore." The Milice arrive and attempt to expel a Jewish diner. When Julien's brother calls them "Collabos", the Milice commander is enraged and tells Madam Quentin, "We serve France, madam. He insulted us." But when a Wehrmacht officer coldly orders them to leave, the Milice officers grudgingly obey. Julien's mother comments that the Jewish diner appears to be a very distinguished gentleman. She insists that she has nothing against Jews, but would not object if the socialist politician Léon Blum were hanged.

Shortly thereafter, Joseph, the school's assistant cook, is exposed for selling the school's food supplies on the black market. He implicates several students as accomplices, including Julien and his brother, François. Although Père Jean is visibly distressed by the injustice, he fires Joseph but does not expel the students for fear of offending their wealthy, influential parents.

On a cold morning in January 1944, the Gestapo raid the school, searching for Jean Kippelstein. As his classroom is being searched, Julien unintentionally gives away Bonnet by looking in his direction. As the other two Jewish boys are hunted down, Julien encounters the person who denounced them, Joseph the kitchen hand. Trying to justify his betrayal in the face of Julien's mute disbelief, Joseph tells him, "Don't act so pious. There's a war going on, kid." Disgusted, Julien runs off. Jean and Julien exchange books, a shared habit of theirs, as they pack away their belongings due to the closure of the school.

As the students are lined up in the school courtyard, a Gestapo officer denounces Père Jean's actions and calls French people weak and undisciplined. Meanwhile, Père Jean and the three Jewish students are led away by the officers. Père Jean shouts: "Au revoir, les enfants! À bientôt!" to the children and they respond: "Au revoir, mon père!" As they leave the grounds, Jean glances toward Julien briefly, and he waves in return.

The film ends with an older Julien providing a voiceover epilogue, in which he mentions that Bonnet, Negus and Dupre died at Auschwitz, whereas Père Jean died at Mauthausen; the school reopened in October. He explains that although more than 40 years have passed, he will remember every second of that January morning until the day he dies.

• Gaspard Manesse as Julien Quentin
• Raphaël Fejtő as Jean Kippelstein, alias "Jean Bonnet"
• Francine Racette as Mme Quentin (Julien's mother)
• Stanislas Carré de Malberg as François Quentin (Julien's older brother)
• Philippe Morier-Genoud as Father Jean/Père Jean
• François Berléand as Father Michel/Père Michel
• Irène Jacob as Mlle Davenne
• François Négret as Joseph (kitchen helper)
• Peter Fitz as Dr. Müller, Gestapo leader
• Pascal Rivet as Boulanger
• Benoît Henriet as Ciron
• Richard Leboeuf as Sagard
• Xavier Legrand as Babinot
• Arnaud Henriet as Negus
• Damien Salot as Dupre

The film is based on events in the childhood of the director, Louis Malle, who at age 11 was attending a Roman Catholic boarding school near Fontainebleau. One day, he witnessed a Gestapo raid in which three Jewish students and a Jewish teacher were rounded up and deported to Auschwitz. The school's headmaster, Père Jacques, was arrested for harboring them and sent to the concentration camp at Mauthausen. He died shortly after the camp was liberated by the U.S. Army, having refused to leave until the last French prisoner was repatriated. Forty years later, Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, granted Père Jacques the title of Righteous Among the Nations.

• List of submissions to the 60th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film
• List of French submissions for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film

• Au revoir les enfants at IMDb
• Au revoir les enfants at AllMovie
• Au revoir les enfants at the TCM Movie Database
• Au Revoir les Enfants screenplay at Google Books
• Au revoir les enfants: Childhood's End an essay by Philip Kemp at the Criterion Collection