All to Play For

Sylvie lives with her two sons. She works nights at a bar. One night her younger boy tries to cook at home alone and is burned. He is treated in hospital and recovers. But the incident goes on record. Social services come. The first meeting does not go well; Sylvie loses her temper and goes on the defensive. A report is written. The child is placed temporarily in an institution. Sylvie goes to court. At every step she loses more, because her anger goes into the report and an angry mother is not counted a suitable one. Delphine Deloget writes and directs; it is her first feature. Virginie Efira plays Sylvie; Félix Lefebvre, Arieh Worthalter and Mathieu Demy are in the cast. It is a French production. The film screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2023 Cannes Film Festival. The matter it treats is how an institution looks; the system is not ill intentioned and every step of it runs against Sylvie. The narrative does not show her as faultless; she shouts, she ignores the rules, and she makes her own position harder. The film was shot in Brest and the working district is inside the narrative. The narrative gives room to the child's view too and the sections in the institution are seen through him. Virginie Efira carries the character physically and the performance is at the centre. The ending gives no easy resolution. Its limit is the watching; the narrative is tiring, the anger constant, and the film gives no relief. Who it is for: viewers who like French social drama and films built on performance. Who it is not for: it is heavy, tiring, and the ending bitter.