‘A Friendship in Vienna’

This 1988 TV film is that rare pleasure--a family film of maturity and substance. Based on Doris Orgel’s book “Devil in Vienna,” Richard Alfieri’s sensitive teleplay chronicles a friendship between two 13-year-old girls--one Jewish (Jenny Lewis), one Catholic (Kamie Harper)--that endures through Germany’s annexation of Austria in 1938. Without a breath of false sentimentality, Alfierei script reveals what childhood becomes in the face of oppression and what uncompromising integrity means in the name of friendship. Under Arthur Allan Seidelman’s direction, the cast--which includes Edward Asner and Jane Alexander--is flawless (Disney Channel at 7 p.m., Monday at 3 a.m.).