A Bag of Marbles (2017)

A Bag of Marbles (2017)

Children are the heroes of this tender survival memoir

7.4

Movie

Canada, Czech Republic
French, German, Russian
Drama, War
2017
CHRISTIAN DUGUAY
Batyste Fleurial, Bernard Campan, Candide Sanchez
113 min

What it's about

At the beginning of the 1940s, in a France occupied by Nazi forces, lived the Jewish Joffo family. Happy and tight-knit, she sees her future darken when all members of the family are forced to wear the yellow star. Fearing the worst, the parents organized their family to flee to the free zone in the south of the country. Maurice, twelve years old, and Joseph, ten years old, will therefore leave alone in order to maximize their chances of finding their older brothers already settled in Nice. The brothers left to their own devices demonstrate an incredible amount of cleverness, courage, and ingenuity to escape the enemy invasion and to try to reunite their family once again.

The take

When German forces occupy Paris in 1942, a close-knit Jewish family tearfully sends their two youngest sons, Jo and Maurice, to escape the city on foot, with promises that they will all eventually be reunited in the Free Zone in the South. Told from the perspective of Jo – and based on the 1973 memoir of Joseph Joffo – what follows is a story of adventure, discovery, loss, love and the resilience of family bonds. A tapestry of cherished memories woven together with traumatic ones, the tone shifts again and again as Jo and his brother reach the bright shores of Nice––before they are driven to hiding again. Above all else, this is a story about the power of a family’s love, and of children who rise against the odds by their own courage and tenacity.

Comments

Add a comment

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

UP NEXT 

Mommy (2014)

Aiming straight for the heart while punching you in the guts, Mommy is a crazy chamber piece about a widowed mother and her next-door neighbor bringing up a savage teenager

9.6

The Man Who Sold His Skin (2020)

A Syrian man becomes artwork in this fascinating drama based on a true story

8.0

The Intouchables (2012)

An all-arounder French comedy-drama based on a true story

9.6

Killers of the Flower Moon (2023)

Martin Scorsese grapples with harrowing history and the limits of storytelling in this monumental masterpiece

8.2

The African Doctor (2016)

A feel-good story of one French village’s first African family

7.2

Official Secrets (2019)

Biography of an Iraq War whistleblower

8.0

Paris Je T’aime (2006)

An anthology ode to the City of Love stacked with talent behind and in front of the camera

7.6

Borg vs. McEnroe (2017)

An uplifting sports drama about one of the greatest tennis matches in history

8.0

My Name Is Loh Kiwan (2024)

Love enables survival in this moving drama about the refugee experience

7.0

By the Grace of God (2018)

A damning account of a cover-up by the Catholic church in France

7.8

Curated by humans, not algorithms.

agmtw logo

© 2024 agoodmovietowatch, all rights reserved.