You are here:

A Bag of Marbles

Name: A Bag of Marbles
Director: Christian Duguay
Released: 2017
Duration: 113 min

Representation Score

4.6/10

Fair

2017

Not Rated

Director

Christian Duguay

Runtime

113 minutes

Average Rating

No ratings yet

New Showbiz Analysis

A Bag of Marbles is a historical drama that finds its strength in centering the Jewish experience during the Nazi occupation. By focusing on the Joffo family, the film provides significant ethnic representation and highlights the ability to act of a persecuted minority. However, the film remains within traditional narrative boundaries. It lacks LGBTQ+ representation and follows conventional gender roles typical of period pieces, focusing primarily on the survival of the male protagonists. Ultimately, the film succeeds as a humanistic drama of ethnic survival, even if it does not attempt to subvert broader social or gender hierarchies.

Watch this, not that →

Category Breakdown

Does A Bag of Marbles have LGBTQ+ representation?

Limited

The story focuses on a nuclear family navigating the Holocaust. There are no LGBTQ+ narratives or non-assuming gender matches what was assigned at birth identities present in the plot.

How does A Bag of Marbles portray gender?

Fair

While the male brothers are the main characters, the mother plays a significant role by organizing the family's escape. The film largely adheres to traditional period gender roles.

How racially and ethnically diverse is A Bag of Marbles?

Good

The film centers on a Jewish family facing systemic persecution in Nazi-occupied France. It provides meaningful depth by highlighting the lived reality of an underrepresented minority.

How does A Bag of Marbles represent religion and culture?

Good

The narrative critiques state-sponsored oppression through the lens of a Jewish family's survival. It focuses on historical struggle rather than broader modern secular critiques.

Does A Bag of Marbles include disability representation?

Minimal

There is no mention of characters with visible or invisible disabilities within the narrative.

Present on Screen

Provides meaningful representation of Jewish identity and the struggle against systemic persecution.
Centers the perspective of an underrepresented group within a European historical context.
Highlights the strategic role of the mother in the family's survival.

Limited or Absent

Lacks any representation of LGBTQ+ identities or non-assuming gender matches what was assigned at birth narratives.
Adheres to traditional, era-specific gender roles without exploring more diverse gender dynamics.
Does not address disability representation within the character ensemble.

Official Synopsis

At the beginning of the 1940s, in a France occupied by Nazi forces, lived the Jewish Joffo family. Happy and tight-knit, she sees her future darken when all members of the family are forced to wear the yellow star. Fearing the worst, the parents organized their family to flee to the free zone in the south of the country. Maurice, twelve years old, and Joseph, ten years old, will therefore leave alone in order to maximize their chances of finding their older brothers already settled in Nice. The brothers left to their own devices demonstrate an incredible amount of cleverness, courage, and ingenuity to escape the enemy invasion and to try to reunite their family once again.

How are these scores produced? →