The film that was first shown in Cannes in the official competition in 1957 is the first Slovenian film to be included in the section.

The film's lead John Kitzmiller, playing the role of Sergeant Jim whose fighter plane is shot down by the Germans, was the first black person to be awarded the best actor award at Cannes.

The plot of the film follows the sergeant, who, trying to escape the Germans, runs into 4-year old Lotti (Evelyne Wohlfeiler) and 9-year old Marko (Tugo Štiglic), who have just lost their families in an air-raid and are looking for a valley where they were told it's always peaceful. Sergeant Jim takes the shell-shocked children under his wings, even if it means risking discovery by the Germans.

The screening of the film on 18 May will be attended by Wohlfeiler and Štiglic, who have not met since the filming of The Valley of Peace, reads a press release from the Slovenian Film Centre.

Other films screened in Cannes Classics include the likes of One-Eyed Jacks (1961) by Marlon Brando, Solaris (1972) by Andrei Tarkovski, Masculina-Feminin (1966) by Jean-Luc Godard and the Decalogue V and VI (1989) by Krzysztof Kieslowski.