All to Play For

Sylvie (Virginie Efira) is a single mother living with her two sons, Sofiane and Jean-Jacques (Félix Lefebvre), in the French port city of Brest. One night, while Sylvie is working as a bartender in a nightclub, her youngest son Sofiane injures himself while trying to prepare fries alone in the apartment. The youth welfare office is alerted by the hospital and takes the child to a home for the duration of the investigation. Sylvie is convinced that she is the victim of a miscarriage of justice and begins to fight for her son, but loses sight of the problems of her teenage son Jean-Jacques... “Nothing to Lose” doesn't spend much time establishing a model family. Sylvie's small family is dominated by chaotic improvisation. The overburdened mother by no means does everything right, but there is never a lack of indispensable love for her two children - just as little as her will to fight. Director Delphine Deloget has made it into the “Un Certain Regard” series at the Cannes Film Festival with her sober, socially critical family drama. And rightly so, as her film raises the right questions at a time when single parents in particular are being pushed to their limits by the rate of inflation and the need to reconcile family and career.