Jeux interdits/Forbidden Games (Rene Clement, 1952)

The film begins with Parisians fleeing their city as German planes bare down from the skies. A young girl chases after her dog not knowing that she will catch the eye of planes above. Her parents chase after her only to be gunned down. The girl opens her eyes after the smoke of the attack clears in the arms of her dead mother and embracing her dog, who is now dying as well, from the trauma of the incident. This movie lets us witness first hand the trauma of a child in wartime. The girl lands in the country home of another family where she comes to know a warped sense of God through her first encounter with a priest and the teaching of a young boy. She becomes obsessed with buying dead animals - of which there seems to be an endless supply. Ultimately she finds herself alone. Again. This movie wrestles with the WHY of life. It wrestles with loneliness. And somehow in the innocence of the two children bigger lessons of life are imparted. Forbidden Games reminds us today of a kind of childhood that has been lost in our own time. This is not a war film, but a war time film. Through it we can learn about those who are having to live through war times even today.