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Set in German-occupied France, Rascals concentrates on the trials and tribulations of schoolboys Bernard Brieux and Thomas Chabrol. Rebellious by nature, the boys try to work within the status quo of their Catholic school while simultaneously bucking it. Giving this story its texture is the fact that, by defying their elders, Bernard and Thomas are symbolically striking a patrotic blow against the occupying Nazis. Inasmuch as the film dwells at some length on sexual awakening, it is understandable that Rascals was slapped with an R rating when released in the US, two years after its completion. Director Bernard Revon was once an associate of another specialist in the field of youthful defiance, director Francois Truffaut.