Forbidden Games

Set in June 1940 during the Battle of France, the film follows five-year-old Paulette, who is orphaned when German air strikes massacre a column of refugees. Terrified and alone in the French countryside, she is discovered by ten-year-old Michel Dollé, the son of a local peasant family. The Dollés take her in, but Paulette remains deeply traumatized by the death of her parents and her pet puppy.

As the adults around them engage in petty feuds and struggle with their own survival, Paulette and Michel form an intense, secret bond. To help Paulette cope with her grief, they begin a "forbidden game": building a private cemetery in an abandoned watermill. What starts as a simple burial for a dog evolves into an obsessive ritual as they collect dead animals and insects, eventually stealing crosses from the village graveyard to adorn their secret sanctuary.

The core meaning of the film lies in its exploration of how children process the incomprehensible nature of death and the trauma of war through ritual and play. René Clément suggests that children are not merely passive victims but active participants who create their own moral and spiritual logic to survive a reality that has abandoned them. The film serves as a scathing critique of the adult world, where the gravity of warfare and institutional religion is contrasted with the children's desperate, honest attempts to find peace for the dead.

Critics have often viewed the film through a psychoanalytic lens, suggesting that the animal cemetery is a form of 'pathological mourning' where Paulette displaces the grief of her parents' unburied bodies onto the animals she can control. Another reading suggests the film is a national allegory for France's own trauma during the Occupation, where the 'games' represent the desperate attempts of a defeated people to find meaning in a shattered national identity. Some also interpret the film as a dark satire on religion, where the children's theft of crosses exposes the emptiness of religious symbols when they are detached from true compassion.

Forbidden Games is considered a cornerstone of post-war French cinema and a pioneer of the "children in war" subgenre. It broke ground by refusing to sentimentalize its young protagonists, instead depicting their behavior with almost documentary-like realism—a style that influenced later masterpieces like The 400 Blows and Grave of the Fireflies.

Historically, the film was controversial for its depiction of the French peasantry and its perceived mockery of Catholic rituals. However, it was hailed internationally as a powerful anti-war statement. Its win at Venice and the Oscars helped rehabilitate the international image of French cinema after the Vichy era. Today, it remains one of the most respected depictions of childhood trauma in history.

Initial reception in France was mixed to negative, with many audiences offended by the depiction of the rural Dollé family as buffoonish or cruel, and the Church seeing the theft of crosses as sacrilegious. However, international critics were near-unanimous in their praise, particularly for the performances of the two children. Over time, the French public grew to embrace the film, and it is now regarded as a national treasure. The ending is frequently cited by viewers as one of the most emotionally devastating moments in cinema history.