There is no more powerful and direct way to examine the traumatic events of war than by looking at it through the eyes of a child. This series showcases three international classics that depict this loss of innocence in the midst of the Second World War. Exploring disparate fronts to WWII, the three films are Elem Klimov’s powerful, sometimes surreal exploration of wartime adolescence in Russia, Come and See; René Clément’s undeniably heartbreaking Forbidden Games, featuring a knockout performance from 5-year old Brigitte Fossey; and Isao Takahata’s wrenching, devastating anime, Grave of the Fireflies.
SAT., 9/6, 7 p.m.
COME AND SEE
Soviet Union | 1985 | DCP | 142 min. | Russian with English subtitles
Director: Elem Klimov
Cast: Alexei Kravchenko, Olga Mironova, Lubomiras Lauciavicus
A teenaged boy in Nazi occupied Russia flees his own destroyed village and falls in with a band of partisans, discovering firsthand the brutal ordeals suffered by peasants. Klimov’s final film, an odyssey on the scale of Apocalypse Now, is shot in muted colors that grimly emphasize the barbarity of war. Increasingly recognized as one of the great films of the late 20th century, Come and See has been hailed by critics, filmmakers, and cinephiles, including Sean Penn who declared the movie “a masterpiece not only of filmmaking, but of humanity itself.”
SAT., 9/13, 7 p.m.
FORBIDDEN GAMES
France | 1952 | DCP | 87 min. | French with English subtitles
Director: René Clément
Cast: Brigitte Fossey, Georges Poujouly, Lucien Hubert
Amid the chaos of the German invasion of France in 1940, young Paulette (a heartbreaking performance by five-year-old Fossey) is orphaned and taken in by a peasant family whose son, Michel, becomes her closest companion. The two children, bound by innocence and grief, create a secret animal cemetery, stealing crosses from the village to honor the imaginary creatures As wartime tensions escalate among the adults Michel and Paulette’s fragile bond and makeshift sanctuary come under threat. One of the most haunting and touching international movies to ever reach American cinemas, Forbidden Games is a still-potent anti-war classic. “The film is so powerful because it does not compromise on two things: the horror of war and the innocence of childhood” (Roger Ebert). A new 4K restoration will be screened.
SAT., 9/20, 7 p.m.
GRAVE OF THE FIREFLIES
Japan | 1994 | DCP | 89 min. | Japanese with English subtitles
Director: Isao Takahata
In the final months of World War II, a teenage boy and his young sister struggle to survive alone in the devastated landscape of firebombed Japan, their bond deepening as the world around them collapses. Based on a semi-autobiographical short story by Akiyuki Nosaka, this anime was the first Studio Ghibli feature directed by Takahata, who was 9 years old at the end of WWII. Perhaps the most emotionally devastating of all animated features, Grave of the Fireflies has been widely acclaimed by critics like Roger Ebert, who wrote “Yes, it’s a cartoon…but it belongs on any list of the greatest war films ever made.”