A social drama that follows a mother’s fight to retain custody of her child. Presented in the Un Certain Regard selection, the film moved the audience at the Cannes Film Festival to tears. Rhythmic and moving.
“Everything was fine and bam! A fryer!” VSThis reply that Sylvie (Virginie Efira) launches with exasperation in the middle of the film, Nothing to lose, sums up in a few words the sudden collapse of a family. A single mother, Sylvie works hard to ensure her two sons have a minimum of comfort. But one evening, while she is working in a nightclub, the youngest burns himself with boiling oil. And everything changes. Social services take over the case and decide to remove custody of Sofiane. But Sylvie is not going to let this happen. Presented in a parallel section during the last Cannes Film Festival, Nothing to lose by Delphine Deloget is released Wednesday, November 22 in theaters.
Descent into hell
For her first feature-length fiction, documentary filmmaker Delphine Deloget chose to focus everything on the characters. “I would like them to be remembered as having existed one day. In documentary, the people we film exist before and after us. In fiction, before us and after us, there is emptiness, nothing. And obviously, I would like there to be a trace of them somewhere.“, confides the director.
Filmed in close-up without pathos, they all imbue the image with strength and conviction. There is Sylvie of course, magnificently played by Virginie Efira, whom the camera follows step by step, providing a frantic pace to her fight. With her two sons with funny first names (they’re the ones who say it), Jean-Jacques for the eldest (the very convincing Felix Lefebvre) and Sofiane for the little one (first appearance of Alexis Tonnetti), she forms a nice trio full of love. Because, it’s a fact, Sylvie loves her two boys like a wolf. She drops the little one off at school, encourages her eldest for his trumpet audition. But Sylvie is not invincible and when the accident occurs, everything she has built over the years collapses like a house of cards.
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Social film
Far from Manichean discourse about who is good or who is bad, Delphine Deloget delivers here a social film in the spiral of social services. The actress Virginie Efira recently confided that she really enjoyed “the quality of vision and the energy of the director”. His character falls and then gets up. A song, a hug, a helping hand, the director manages to dispel the gray light thanks to sequences of marvelous simplicity. Grounded and earthy, explosive and sunny, Sylvie will hang on, look for a new job, fight the judicial machine, put on a good face and above all stay “calm” as everyone advises him. But successive interrogations and the fear of permanently losing her child will gradually make her unravel.
Around Sylvie, Sofiane and Jean-Jacques, there are a host of friends and understanding neighbors. Secondary characters who take a central place in the story. Everyone will try to help him, including his two brothers. Hervé, the slightly marginal, but very tender guy, played by Arieh Worthalter and Alain, a former repentant casino player, played by Mathieu Demy. And then of course, on the other side, there is the social worker. Inflexible and cold, Madame Henry (excellent India Hair) also wants the best for the child.
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The sheet
Gender : drama
Director : Delphine Delonget
Actors: Virginie Efira, Félix Lefebvre, Alexis Tonnetti, India Hair, Mathieu Demy, Arieh Worthalter
Country : France
Distributer : AD VITAM
Duration : 1h52
Exit : November 22, 2023
Synopsis : Sylvie lives in Brest with her two children, Sofiane and Jean-Jacques. Together, they form a close-knit family. One night, Sofiane is injured while he is alone in the apartment and his mother at work. A report is made and Sofiane is placed in a shelter. Armed with a lawyer, her brothers and the love of her children, Sylvie is confident, convinced of being stronger than the administrative and judicial machine…