Following their evacuation from the city, a young French girl's parents are mowed down on a country road during a German air raid. Taken in by a family of peasants, she befriends their slightly older son as the two begin to purloin religious objects in order to build a pet cemetery. Rene Clement's Forbidden Games is a distinctly filmed, darkly humored children's movie with the constant threat of war looming in the shadows and the theme of childhood innocence lost conveyed heavy handedly. The young actors are excellent.
*** 1/2 out of ****
