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YvonneJoan
Reviews
La colline aux mille enfants (1994)
A moving, complex human dilemma in a desperate situation.
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.