When the much-missed Louis Malle, the eclectic director of French proto-New Wave and American oddities, was just 11 years old, he witnessed a Gestapo raid on his Roman Catholic school. Three Jewish children were taken away and, later, the goons returned for his heroic headmaster Père Jacques. More than 40 years after the event, Malle, recently celebrated for Atlantic City and Pretty Baby, eventually got round to tackling the material. The picture proved to be a rare foreign-language hit in the United States. It won the Golden Lion at Venice and was nominated for best foreign-language film Oscar (which it lost to the less resilient Babette's Feast).

Despite the inevitable tragic ending – at which the title is recited to poignant effect -- Au revoir les Enfants plays, for most of its duration, as a humane, often funny, coming-of-age story. Malle's own script grasps the oddness of adults and the cruelties of children in a way that reminds us of other French classics such as The 400 Blows and Zéro de Conduite.

The story follows Malle’s experiences quite closely. Gaspard Manesse plays a pampered boy whose school life becomes a little more exciting when two new students arrive. He eventually makes friends and discovers that they are Jews being hidden by his courageous headmaster. The film pokes around in murky corners – addressing collaboration and anti-Semitism – but ultimately allows a social accident to trigger the final catastrophe. Life has as much to do with mishaps as it has to do with malignity. A strong story worth savouring on the big screen.

Au revoir les Enfants is at Dublin's IFI from Friday, January 30th