Les hauts murs (2008) Online

In 1932, In France, the fourteen year-old runaway orphan Yves Tréguier (Emile Berling) is sent to a reformatory after several attempts to travel to New York as stowaway in a ship. In the environment of prison, Tréguier is protected by the aspirant mechanic Blondeau (Guillaume Gouix) against the bully rascal Molina (Anthony Decadi) and befriends the upper-class teenager Marcel "Fil de fer" Morand (Julien Bouanich) that was sent to the institution by his stepfather and misses his mother (Carole Bouquet) and his piano. Tréquier unsuccessfully tries to escape from the brutal reform school and invites Blondeau to go with him, but the youngster has the promise of a job of mechanic for the next year and prefers to stay in the reformatory. However, Marcel is incapable to support the life conditions far from his beloved mother and commits suicide triggering a series of events that will force Blondeau to join Tréquier in his dream.

"Les Hautes Murs" is a drama based on a true story of French writer Auguste Le Breton, the pseudonym adopted by Yves Tréguier. The life conditions and brutality of the guards in this "education center" is impressive and the place is actually a school of crime, corruption and perverted sex. I love the speech of Fil de fer in the refectory when he says that children are not born to be criminal. In accordance with the information in the end of the film, this type of reformatory in France was shutdown only in 1979. The performances and the direction are top- notch. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Entre os Muros da Prisão" ("Within the Prison Walls")

I have always been in love with Auguste Le Breton's novels. Especially crime mobsters ones, I must admit. Such as "Rififi chez les Hommes" - his most famous and that was adapted as a movie by Jules Dassin - "Le Rouge est mis", "Razzia sur la Schnouf"; not forget "Le Clan des Sicilians". he wrote more than seventy novels. Gangsters, outlaws, adventurers, people in war with society that broke them down. Social novels, too. Not for the squeamish.

"Les Hauts Murs" was the first book he wrote, but not published. He wrote it with his guts, his rage, his ferocity. Keep in mind that Le Breton was an authentic orphan just after WW1. He was raised by foster parents,escaped and caught before sent in approved school, the cruelest ones, the most terrible. Animal Factories. No more no less. He learned what real life was, brutality, fierce but friendship too.

The movie is faithful to the novel. Heart gripping, tough, awfully realistic about the real atmosphere of the tremendous orphanages of the 30's.

I wept during this splendid film. An unforgettable one.