‘When the Night Falls’ Review: Saving Children in the Shadows of Vichy
Set in 1942 France, a reluctant bureaucrat and a defiant priest race against tightening Vichy orders to rescue as many Jewish people as possible.
Among the thousands of stories connected to the Holocaust and the rescue of people during the darkest moments of Nazism, the events at the Vénissieux camp in France in 1942 deserve a place of their own. It’s a somewhat unusual case compared to most narratives on the subject, as it does not —at least not directly— involve the Nazis themselves, focusing instead on the bureaucrats of the Vichy regime, the French authorities who answered to the German occupiers, and those who refused, or tried to find ways, not to comply with their demands.
Everything in the film unfolds over the course of three nights. It begins when that puppet government decides to round up Jews for deportation. In Lyon, where the story takes place, as this process is set in motion, the film follows a commission assembled to review individual cases, determining who must be deported and who might fall into one of several categories of exemption —including the elderly, unaccompanied children, prominent scientists, military figures, and others.
The man coordinating this group, Gilbert Lesage (Antoine Reinartz), is a bureaucrat who wants to help as much as possible without putting his own position at risk. Among the members of this commission —which includes police officials— is also Father Glasberg (Daniel Auteuil), who does everything in his power to save as many people as possible, even falsifying documents to prove they qualify for exemption, all while lacking the support of the Church hierarchy.
As the hours pass, however, the pressure intensifies, the scope of exemptions narrows, and the Vichy authorities appear increasingly determined to deport all Jews, paying little heed to the exceptions they had initially allowed. It is then, in a race against time, that efforts shift toward saving at least the children, with Lesage ultimately changing his stance and committing himself to achieving that humane gesture.
When the Night Falls is, like Schindler’s List, a film about the efforts of non-Jews during the war to save as many lives as possible. Directed by Auteuil himself, it is a more bureaucratic, somber, and modestly scaled film, one that largely unfolds through meetings, verbal confrontations, and scenes set in dimly lit interiors. That lack of light —the film seems to exist in near-constant shadow— adds a sense of gravity, but also flattens it, making it visually monotonous.
Structured in chapters corresponding to each of the three nights referenced in its French title, the most intense and emotionally charged section comes in the third, when deportations are finally carried out and Lesage, Glasberg, and others who assist them do the impossible —again, in a distinctly Schindler-like fashion— to get as many children out as they can.
The film may not fully convey the magnitude of that effort, but it stands, at the very least, as a worthy tribute to those who saved children who would go on to have families —children, grandchildren— and who managed to survive the most brutal tragedy of the 20th century.
