In France’s Farewell, Mister Haffmann (2021), “after the Germans occupy France, a talented jeweler, Joseph Haffmann, arranges for his family to flee the city and offers one of his employees the opportunity to take over his store until the conflict subsides” (imdb.com). However, the conflict heats up and the Jewish Haffmann is forced to return to the store to hide in the cellar. The employee, Mercier, and his wife Blanche tend to him, except . . . what follows is a Gentile’s, Mercier’s, startling compromise as it turns into a burden, and then deal-breaking and what looks like sheer antisemitism.

Fred Cavaye directed and co-scripted what was originally a play by Jean-Philippe Daguerre. He is wonderfully expert at it, as such performers as Gilles Lellouche (Mercier) are at acting. The film’s ending is not quite convincing but still plausible. One can say oui to Adieu Monsieur Haffmann.

(In French with English subtitles)