I recently found a DVD of the film 'Silent Night' in a Poundland shop. I realised I had come across another obscure film with an obscure boy actor. In this case we had Matthew Harbour playing a German boy, Fritz, spending the Christmas of 1944 with his mother (Linda Hamilton) in the family lodge deep in the Ardennes Forest. This was a heartwarming story with a social message condemning the futility of war and how we can all get along with each other if we have to.
Three American soldiers, one of whom is wounded, gatecrash German mother and son's quiet Christsmas Eve and billet themselves in the house. Then three German soldiers arrive on the scene and everything is set for some interesting festivities! When the German sergeant attends the American soldier's wounds and saves his life the antagonism diminishes.
I didn't recognise any of the actors apart from Linda Hamilton, not even Matthew Harbour for which I shall undoubtedly be chastised by other BA members! It seemed to me that it was based on a play as there is a great deal of dialogue and the action all takes place in and around the lodge. The interplay between the characters is well handled by the director, Rodney Gibbons. The tensions obviously arising from such a situation come over very well. The inherent goodness of the mother and her rule that all guns must be kept outside gradually wins the day.
Matthew Harbour plays Fritz excellently in an understated way and portrays the boy's mixed feelings at, on the one hand, wanting to serve his country and Fuehrer in the Hitler Youth and, on the other, realising that the enemy isn't as bad as he first thought.
Above all is the social message implanted here and how we could reconcile our differences without needing to kill and maim each other to do it.

I'll do the chastising. 

Matthew Harbour is a Montreal based young actor of some note. He had leads in Daniel and the Superdogs, an entry in the long-running "Tales for All" series of films from Canada, and Two Summers a film that didn't seem to travel much further than the Montreal World Film Festival where joseph and I saw it (and Matthew) many years ago.

I was so impressed with him that I posted more info on him in our biographies forum.

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I saw this TV movie this evening. This story is very interesting. I liked the play of Matthew HARBOUR in part of Fritz. I hope him in others movies. I think which is a very good actor.