Once in a while, pictures like this one make you understand and see things you don't want or did not want to see : here's a example of why cinema is so important. A forgotten drama in France 1942 that you can read in books of history but not actually see. Like the Schindler's list, La Rafle is a touching art of work and the fact that the kids are taking a big place in the movie give the all thing a unforgettable moment of emotions... and cinema. Cannot say more : you have to watch this movie to be sure you have the right image of what what France was in that period of time. Especially because the director show that french people, unlike their police, behave in a very human way (helping families and children). Great movie !

OK, it's not a superb film but, all the same, it is a decent depiction of the extermination of the Jews in Paris. The acting is very good, both by Jean Reno and Melanie Laurent as well. Even the child actors give good performances in general. There is nothing special or surprising regarding the plot, and most of the themes have already been presented effectively in other films, but this fact does not make the film bad in any way. The film manages to hold the tension and it succeeds in being moving at the same time. All in all, I watched this movie with undiminished interest from the beginning till the end and I think it deserves a higher rating than 5.6/10, as well as your attention

This film recounts the story of the July 16, 1942 round-up of 24,000 non-French Jews who had flooded into Paris in the years preceding the occupation to escape Nazi oppression in their homelands. However, the mass-arrest netted less than half the expected number because of the sympathies and help of Paris' non-Jewish inhabitants who warned and hid their non-French Jewish neighbours.

This film is predictably poignant because it focuses on the children of these captured Jews. Their story is based on evidence recounted by survivors and witnesses to the events, and as is often the case, truth is stranger than fiction, especially when it comes to stories of humanity.

What is unique about this film is how the relationship of Jews and non-Jews and how the sympathies of Parisians to their Nazi occupiers is conveyed. Every shade of humanity is depicted from an anti-semitic neighbourhood baker, and bullying police, to acts of kindness shown by firemen and neighbours, and of course the main character, a nurse who volunteers to care for the interned Jews. Interspersed with this story are snippets of Hitler and Eva at Berchtesgaden with Adolf shown alternatively as a loving 'uncle' to the children of the Nazi elite, or as a madman planning the destruction of the Jewish people.

This is an extremely well written, directed and acted film. The subject matter may not be new, but this story is fresh.