Hope And Glory (1987, U.K.)

British writer/director John Boorman (The Emerald Forest) draws us into an astonishing and exhilarating portrait of his own childhood, set against the terrors of a London torn apart by the onset of WWII. Seven-year-old Billy Rohan (Sebastian Rice Edwards) finds his childhood to be a time of great danger and even greater discovery. From thunderous bombings at his own doorstep and the constant threat of Luftwaffe air raids to the landing of a German paratrooper in his neighborhood and the joyous obliteration of his much-hated school, Billy’s young life is shaped and even enriched by the one positive thing war has brought him: liberation from the ordinary. And though Billy is surrounded by decimation and the smoking remnants of ruined lives, his sense of enchanted wonderment and innocence in the face of man’s most destructive folly affect him in a way that alters his life forever.

Also stars Sarah Miles (Blow Up, The Hireling) and David Hayman (Vertical Limit, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas).