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One of the first films to see the horrors of war through the eyes of children,
Forbidden Games was a critical smash, winning prizes from the New York
Film Critics, the British Academy, and the Venice Film Festival. Adapted by
Francois Boyer, director Rene Clement, and two others from Boyer's novel,
the story focuses on Paulette (Brigitte Fossey), a five-year-old refugee from
Paris taken in by a peasant family after her parents are killed during a
bombardment of a civilian convoy. Michel Dolle (Georges Pujouly), the
family's 11-year-old son, becomes her best friend, and they create a
cemetery in which Paulette's dog is interred, along with other animals and
insects, some of whom the children kill themselves. The Dolle family is too
busy feuding with the Gouards, their neighbors, to notice the absence of the
children. Eventually, authorities locate Paulette and insist that she be placed
in an orphanage for legal adoption. Unsentimental and yet heartbreaking,
Forbidden Games demonstrates the strategies of children who witness war
to deal with the constant presence of death. It's also a bitter condemnation of
the selfishness of adults who could offer their charges more love and
protection
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