a review of 老人与小孩

The original title of this film translates to The Old Man and the Boy, which is less generic and more to the point. This is one of the best films I've ever seen about prejudice and how it tends to work in the real world. A young Jewish boy in early '40s France is sent to the country to stay with the parents of a family friend, to wait out the end of the war. He's given an alias and has to hide his Jewishness from his new hosts ("Make sure you bathe alone"), and forms a friendship with Pepe, the crusty WWI veteran who treats him like a grandson, all the while praising Petain, the general he served under, who is now collaborating with the Germans and spouting the usual anti-Semite tropes about how you recognize a Jew to this young child. The films main point is to dispel the idea that France was united in opposing the occupation, there are a few contrasts throughout in how characters act before and after the liberation at the end of the movie