This gentle comedy drama about rival gangs of school kids in two sleepy Irish villages is a remake of the 1938 and 1962 French films set in rural Ireland, based on the 1912 novel by Louis Pergaud.

The school uniform-wearing Carricks and the mufti-dressed Ballys fight an ongoing war of insults, pranks and ambushes.

But when one captive Carricks boy is humiliated by having all his buttons cut off his uniform and the Carricks in turn cut the buttons off the clothes of the Bally boys' leader, the cry goes out - let full scale battle commence!

The kids (headed by Gregg Fitzgerald, John S. Coffey and Eveanna Ryan) are wonderful, and the humour warm but unsentimental, in this delightful family film.