La rafle

Once in a while, pictures like this one make you understand and see things you don't want or did not want to see : here's a example of why cinema is so important. A forgotten drama in France 1942 that you can read in books of history but not actually see. Like the Schindler's list, La Rafle is a touching art of work and the fact that the kids are taking a big place in the movie give the all thing a unforgettable moment of emotions... and cinema. Cannot say more : you have to watch this movie to be sure you have the right image of what what France was in that period of time. Especially because the director show that french people, unlike their police, behave in a very human way (helping families and children). Great movie !

The theme is far to be new. In strange way, this is its basic virtue. Because, starting from an event of the year 1943 , in Paris, it gives , in brilliant manner, the portrait of a profound tragedy, in right and precise manner. It represents one of most inspired films about Shoah. For performances of children, for the cinematography, for the script who gives different angles of tragedy, for the feeling of viewer to remind the weakness of human nature. A great film. Useful in deep sense. For remind. And for define the essence of the way to discover the other as only object.

OK, it's not a superb film but, all the same, it is a decent depiction of the extermination of the Jews in Paris. The acting is very good, both by Jean Reno and Melanie Laurent as well. Even the child actors give good performances in general. There is nothing special or surprising regarding the plot, and most of the themes have already been presented effectively in other films, but this fact does not make the film bad in any way. The film manages to hold the tension and it succeeds in being moving at the same time. All in all, I watched this movie with undiminished interest from the beginning till the end and I think it deserves a higher rating than 5.6/10, as well as your attention

In the summer of 1942 more than 12,000 French Jews were delivered to the Nazi. They were locked at the Vélodrome d'Hiver for several days without food or water or sanitation.

It was up to Red Cross nurses, like Annette Monod (Mélanie Laurent), and Dr. Sheinbaum (Jean Reno) to care for the prisoners and mitigate their suffering.

La Rafle is not a film about the deportation of Jews and the horror of the concentration camps with Hitler's Final Solution. This film is powerful testimony to the denaturalization of French Jews, the appalling conditions of the Vel d'Hiv, the lack of resistance of the French police as well as the existence of the French camps.

On 06 June 1942, the government of Vichy makes a deal with the Nazis and delivers thousands of Jewish families to be sent to the concentration Camp of Beaune-La-Rolande, Loiret and then to the crematories.

"La Rafle" is another touching and heartbreaking film that shows the fate of some Jewish families that are removed by force from their homes to the final destination of a crematory. The cruelty of the fate of the Jewish in occupied Europe in the 40's is composed of millions of tragic stories; therefore films about this theme are always extremely sad and usually well-produced, shaking with the emotions of any sensitive viewer.

This new approach of the Holocaust, based on what happened in France under the complacence of the French politicians and authorities, is very sad since it shows the destiny of thousand of children that are first separated from their mothers and then send to death. It is cruel but never comparable to the "Sophia's Choice", for me the most depressive film about mother and children relationship ever made. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Amor e Ódio" ("Love and Hate")