| Alt Name: | La Ville dont le prince est un enfant The Fire That Burns |
| Creator: | Henry de Montherlant (play) Didier Decoin (adaptation) |
| Director: | Christophe Malavoy |
| Starring: | Christophe Malavoy Michel Aumont Naël Marandin Clément van den Bergh |
| Country: | France |
| Language: | French |
| Producer: | Dominique Antoine |
| Editor: | Noëlle Boisson |
| Cinematography: | Bernard Lutic |
| Runtime: | 91 minutes |
La Ville dont le prince est un enfant is a 1997 made-for-television film adapted from a 1951 play by French dramatist Henry de Montherlant of the same title.
The title, literally translated, The City Where the Prince is a Child, is taken from Ecclesiastes 10:16: "Woe to thee, O land, when thy king is a child, and thy princes eat in the morning!"
The French-language film was subsequently released in North American markets on DVD in 2004 under the title, The Fire That Burns, similar to the 1977 English language translation of the play produced in 1977 under the title, The Fire that Consumes.
Philosophy student André Sevrais (played by Naël Marandin) attends a Catholic boys' school in Paris, where he becomes fast friends with his younger schoolmate, a little rebellious boy named Serge Souplier (played by Clément van den Bergh). This friendship between the two youngsters does not go unobserved by the Abbot of Pradts (played by Christophe Malavoy), who harbors a secret obsession with Souplier and uses his position of authority to try to handle the adolescent Servais, with the pretext of protecting the youngster Souplier; ultimately, however, he is undone by his own hand.