La maison des bois 1971
52min | Drama | TV Mini-Series (1971– )
User review:
Set in the French countryside during the Great War of 1914-18 Pialat’s extraordinary seven episode TV serial extends the themes of his debut feature L’Enfance Nue, the director however having much more freedom and time to explore the nature of childhood and the impact on children abandoned by their parents. The series focuses on the experiences of three children (including even Michel Tarrazon, the young star of the earlier movie) living out in the country with gamekeeper Albert and Maman Jeanne on the country estate of a Marquis. The gamekeeper and his wife have their own older children, Marcel and Marguerite, but the three boys have been sent there by their parents who have been caught up in the war, the fathers called up to the front, the mothers simply unable to look after them in the present climate.
Die Kinder aus Nr. 67 1980
1h 43min | Family | 11 April 1980 (West Germany)
Storyline:
The “Our Gang” type adventures of German working class kids from a Berlin apartment building (number 67) during the early 1930s. With Nazism’s rise, however, their tight-knit group unravels. One leader, Paul, becomes a Nazi. (In a later book of the series, you discover he renounces Nazism and flees to Switzerland.) One, Erwin, resists Nazification. (In a later book, his father takes him to Sweden. He eventually, however, fights for the British.) And the girl, Miriam, who is Jewish, immigrates to Canada. (In a later book, she returns to Europe after the war, where all three comrades finally meet in Geneva to renew their vows of friendship once again.)
Glasskar 2002
Glasskår (original title)
1h 16min | Drama, Family | 15 February 2002 (Norway)
User review:
Norwegian director Berg takes an unusual approach in this film about a young teen boy: He makes an honest, artistic film with adult production values that actually speaks to kids. The content may seem a bit grown up, but it’s right where these children live! Sometime in the 1980s, Viktor (Evjen), a sharp, perceptive 13-year-old who’s afraid he will never be as cool as his big brother OK (Lauritzsen). His pals (Eidissen and Stigar) seem to feel the same, so they form a band just to get the girls’ attention, even though none of them can play an instrument. Meanwhile, Viktor knows something’s up in his family. His parents (Kokkin and Kolsrud) are not talking to him, while OK tells him secrets he finds hard to believe. Meanwhile, Viktor notices a new girl (Johansen) and gets entangled with the local thug (Rafaelsen) and his girlfriend (Gjertsen). Basically, Viktor knows far more than anyone gives him credit for. And he cooler than all of them put together!
While the filmmaking itself is profoundly un-flashy, Berg captures the story beautifully. This is rich, meaningful cinema–thoroughly entertaining in its use of humour and unexpected adventures to keep us engaged, and then deepening it with a fairly intense examination of family communication (what the film is really about, as opposed to more obvious themes). Why do adults lie and keep the truth from children? Sometimes this is a little heavy-handed, but it’s never sentimental at all, and Berg gets terrific, natural, edgy performances from the entire cast. Evjen is especially good, making Viktor a very intriguing character we like instantly and then learn to respect (he becomes a bit too saintly at the end, but never mind). It’s rare to find a film about children made with this level of integrity and truthfulness; so keep an eye out for it.
Memories of My Childhood 1965
Amintiri din copilarie (original title)
1h 12min | Adventure, Biography, Comedy | 13 December 1965 (Romania)
Storyline:
Loosely based on Romanian author Ion Creanga’s life as a child during the 1840s.Young schoolboy Ion is growing up fast in a provincial town of the Moldavia region of Romania.Local villagers call him “Nica a lui Stefan a Petrei”.The film offers a detailed account of his childhood with special focus on the relationships between Ion and the various people in his life.The relationships between Ion as a child and his parents,friends,neighbors and teachers are described.The larger context of the Romanian rural social universe of the 19th century is also touched upon.Finally,the film shows Ion’s coming-of-age from an innocent child growing up in an idyllic remote village to a rebellious adolescent dreaming of becoming a priest.
Mumu 2010
1h 35min | Comedy, Drama | 24 March 2010 (France)
Storyline
The story a rescue, the rescue of a bad brat’s life in the post-WWII period. In 1947, Roger reaches 11 years old. He’s a kid badly loved, mischievous and specializes in silly things to do. He is sent to a small boarding school in a small village. Mumu reigns over here. She’s not the bitchest school teacher of the area. Roger has already been expelled from several schools and this is his last chance to avoid the reformatory his father has been promising him for a long time. But this is will change with the vigilance of Mumu, who, despite her strict aspects, proves herself to have a big heart.
Ivan’s childhood 1962
Ivanovo detstvo (original title)
1h 35min | Drama, War | 9 May 1962 (Poland)
Storyline
During World War II, 12-year old Ivan works as a spy on the eastern front. The small Ivan can cross the German lines unnoticed to collect information. Three Soviet officers try to take care of this boy-child.
Europa messze van episode 5 – 1995
1h 45min | Drama
Plot:
The story starts in Romania in the last years of the Ceaucescu regime. The main character of the film is Petru, a ten-year-old Romanian boy. His world is one of action and dreams but, at the same time, presents an authentic vista of contemporary Central Europe. All the events are shown through his eyes. His odyssey is an amusing and grotesque tale of survival as well as a parable on the survival of the human spirit. He comes to grips with a hostile world with both humour and rage, imagination and innocence. Petru lives with his vegetarian father Mihai and his pianist mother Daniela, in a small idyllic village in the Carpathian Mountains. His best friends are his dog Ursu, with whom he shares all his joys and sorrows, and the buffalo Florica. One day the family has to leave the country for political reasons. A long journey to freedom full of thrills and adventures begins, which first leads them from Hungary to Austria. Here they are sent to a refugee camp where Petru’s parents are classified as economic refugees because they have no documents; they are be deported back to Romania. Petru flees on his own and has to encounter a number of dangerous situations. But there are also glimmers of hope when an old stationmaster and his wife from a tiny Bavarian village adopt him, nurse him back to health and enable him to integrate into a new community. But here too, the police are already on his tail..
