A Bag of Marbles

In occupied France during the early 1940s, the Jewish Joffo family sees its comfortable life in Paris collapse as the authorities impose restrictions on Jews and require them to wear the yellow star. Fearing what is coming, the parents arrange for the family to escape to the unoccupied zone in the south. To improve the chances of getting through, they send two of their sons, ten-year-old Joseph and twelve-year-old Maurice, ahead on their own, hoping the boys will eventually join their older brothers in Nice. What follows is a journey in which the two children must rely on their wits and on each other to avoid detection and stay one step ahead of danger.

Christian Duguay directs and co-wrote the screenplay with Laurent Zeitoun and Benoît Guichard. The film is the twelfth of the thirteen features Duguay has directed in chronological order, coming after Belle and Sebastian: The Adventure Continues and before Ride Above. Dorian Le Clech and Batyste Fleurial play the brothers, with Patrick Bruel and Elsa Zylberstein as their parents, and Bernard Campan and Christian Clavier in supporting roles.

Made for a budget of about 21 million USD, the film took roughly 11 million USD at the worldwide box office. On IMDb it holds a rating of 7.3 out of 10 from around 7,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.8 out of 10 from 912 votes. A critics' rating of 7.3 out of 10 from 24 reviews places it close to the audience scores.