In La Rafle, director Rose Bosch boldly tackles the psyche of Hitler, showing the Führer enjoying the high life with Eva Braun as he instructs his minions to pressure France to hand over its Jews so he can sate his genocidal bloodlust before the Allies fully catch on to his heinous mission. It's a chilling, yet absurd scene. Almost as abhorrent is the capitulating French government, worried more about politics and image than the welfare of tens of thousands of Jews. The "round-up" eventually comes and the film shifts to follow the families ripped apart as they are sent to a disease-ridden internment camp, and worse. Children aren't spared, making the moments of hope and bravery all the more searing. The talented ensemble includes Jean Reno as a Jewish doctor tending to his fellow victims and Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds) as a Protestant nurse standing against the tide of evil madness.
