La colline aux mille enfants

This is apparently a made for TV movie I got on video from my local library (since it says it's an EMMY AWARD winner).

The film is an apparently true tale of a town in France that harbored many Jewish children--saving them from the Nazis. Despite considerable risk, they were able to save a lot of kids.

The acting is excellent as is the writing. I have no serious complaints at all, though I think the ending could have been wrapped up a little better. This film would be an excellent film to to older kids and teens to help make some sense of the Holocaust and let us know at least SOME people cared to make a difference.

This film deals with the German occupation of France during World War II, but relates the situation of the Jews with the situation of the Protestant minority in France after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1685. Then, Protestants, like the Jews in World War II, were driven into hiding if they wished to continue practicing their religion. The Protestants in the region of the Cevennes sympathize with the plight of the Jews. They are faced with complex choices, particularly whether the use of violence is ever justified even in the most desperate circumstances against evident evil. We also see that every race and every human being has both good and bad elements. It is a moving, human story. The acting, especially that of Patrick Raynal as the protestant pastor, is good. A similar story, "Monsignor Renard" with Jonathan Thaw as a Catholic minister in Normandy, was on Masterpiece Theater a year or so ago.