''A Bag of Marbles'' (french: Un sac de billes) is a 2017 French drama film directed by Christian Duguay, based on the autobiographical novel '' A Bag of Marbles'' by

Joseph Joffo Joseph Joffo (2 April 1931 – 6 December 2018) was a French author. A noted autobiographer, Joffo was perhaps best known for his memoir ''Un sac de billes'' ('' A Bag of Marbles''), which has been translated into eighteen languages. Early ...

. It is the second time the novel has been made into a film after ''Un sac de billes'' (1975). The film won the Best Narrative Audience Award at the

Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival The Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival (also known as the Gershman Philadelphia Jewish Film Festival (GPJFF)) is an annual film festival in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States that presents movies and film-related programs about the Jew ...

37. The film was also a jury prize competitor at the

Atlanta Jewish Film Festival The Atlanta Jewish Film Festival is the largest film festival of any kind in the Georgia (U.S. state), state of Georgia and is the largest Jewish film festival in the world. The 23-day festival is held in late winter at multiple venues in Atlanta, ...

Plot

occupied France The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, two young Jewish brothers, Maurice and Joseph, are sent by their parents to the Italian Zone, and display courage, intelligence and ingenuity as they escape the occupiers and try to reunite their family. At the very end of the film, Maurice and Joseph, who became barbers like their father, are shown in the present day (2017) in a Paris cafe.

Cast and characters

* Dorian Le Clech as Joseph * Batyste Fleurial as Maurice *

Patrick Bruel Patrick Benguigui (; born 14 May 1959), better known by his stage name Patrick Bruel (), is a French singer-songwriter, actor and professional poker player. Biography Early life Patrick is the son of Pierre Benguigui and Augusta Kammoun, d ...

as Roman *

Elsa Zylberstein Elsa Zylberstein (born Elsa Florence Zylbersztejn, 16 October 1968) is a French film, TV, and stage actress. After studying drama, Zylberstein began her film career in 1989, and has appeared in more than 60 films. She won the César Award for Be ...

as Anna *

Bernard Campan Bernard Campan (born 4 April 1958, in Agen) is a French actor, film director and writer. He is a member of Les Inconnus trio of humorists. He won a César Award for Best Debut for ''Les Trois Frères'', and was nominated for best actor for hi ...

as Amboise Mancelier *

Kev Adams Kev Adams or Kev' Adams (born Kevin Smadja; 1 July 1991) is a French comedian, actor, humorist, screenwriter and film producer. Early life Adams was born in 1991 in the 16th district of Paris. His father is a real estate agent of Algerian Jewi ...

as Ferdinand *

Christian Clavier Christian Jean-Marie Clavier (; born 6 May 1952) is a French actor, screenwriter, film producer and director. He became widely popular after starring in two hit comedy series: Patrice Leconte's ''Les Bronzés'' and ''Les Visiteurs'' directed by J ...

as Doctor Rosen *

César Domboy César Domboy (born 10 March 1990) is a French actor best known for '' The Walk'' and his recurring role as Fergus Claudel Fraser in the Starz television drama '' Outlander.'' Early life Domboy was born on 10 March 1990 in France ...

as Henri * Ilian Bergala as Albert *

Emile Berling Emil or Emile may refer to: Literature *'' Emile, or On Education'' (1762), a treatise on education by Jean-Jacques Rousseau * ''Émile'' (novel) (1827), an autobiographical novel based on Émile de Girardin's early life *'' Emil and the Detecti ...

as Raoul Mancelier * Jocelyne Desverchère as Marcelle Mancelier * Coline Leclère as Françoise * Holger Daemgen as Alois Brunner * Michael Smadja as Simon * Lucas Prisor as German Controller * Frédéric Épaud as the priest Buffa

Reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film holds an approval rating of 83% based on 24 reviews, and an average rating of 7.3/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Hannah Brown of ''

The Jerusalem Post ''The Jerusalem Post'' is a broadsheet newspaper based in Jerusalem, founded in 1932 during the British Mandate of Palestine by Gershon Agron as ''The Palestine Post''. In 1950, it changed its name to ''The Jerusalem Post''. In 2004, the paper w ...

'' called ''A Bag of Marbles'' "One of the best movies told about the holocaust from a child’s point of view". The film was shot in the south of France and in

Žatec Žatec (; german: Saaz) is a town in Louny District in the Ústí nad Labem Region of the Czech Republic. It has about 19,000 inhabitants. It lies on the Ohře river. The town centre is well preserved and is protected by law as an urban monumen ...

, Czech Republic.

References

External links

* 2017 drama films French drama films 2010s French-language films Films set in France Films directed by Christian Duguay (director) Canadian drama films French-language Canadian films 2010s Canadian films 2010s French films {{2010s-drama-film-stub