" Au revoir, les enfants" is based on the most poignant memory of my childhood. In 1944, I was eleven years old and staying at a Catholic boarding school near Fontainebleau. One of my classmates, who arrived at the beginning of the year, captivated me. He was different, mysterious. I was beginning to know him and love him when, one morning, our little world collapsed. That morning in 1944 might well have determined my vocation as a filmmaker. It should have been the subject of my first film, but I waited. Time passed, the memory became more intense, more present. After ten years in the United States, I felt the moment had arrived, and I wrote the screenplay for Au revoir, les enfants . My imagination used memory as a springboard, and I recreated the past, beyond historical reconstruction, in search of a truth that is both poignant and timeless."