O Menino e a Guerra

It is always easy to paint one group of people as all evil and another as all good, but this story beautifully portrays the consequences of individual choices. While most German soldiers went along willingly with the Final Solution, there were those who quietly did what they could to resist. A good friend of mine who survived Auschwitz did so because a high-level German electrical engineer took him under his wing for more than a year and a half, hiding this Jewish boy in plain site from those who would gladly have killed him. And there were many individuals, French and other non-Germans, who willingly cooperated with what the Nazis were doing to the Jews. Each of us needs to ask ourselves what we would do, given the opportunity to stand up to evil like this, even if it put our lives at risk?

I for one am glad that this film quietly tells the story of the courage of an entire simple French mountain village, beginning with a shepherd boy who cared about the welfare of others. The very ordinariness of what is portrayed here, within the extraordinary larger context of the Second World War, is part of what makes this story so special. Yes, it is fictional but it is based on real events. This film is also beautifully filmed and is movingly expressive of human courage. As Proverbs 24:11-12 states, "Deliver those who are drawn toward death, and hold back those stumbling to the slaughter. If you say, "Surely we did not know this," does not He who weighs the hearts consider it? He who keeps your soul, does He not know it? And will He not render to each man according to his deeds?" I for one strongly recommend this film as truly worth seeing!