(Credits: Far Out / MUBI)

All To Play For (released as Rien à Perdre, or ‘nothing to lose’), the debut feature from documentary and television director Delphine Deloget, is a distinctive child custody drama which takes a strongly stated view of one family’s fight against bureaucracy. The storyline begins as a straightforward tale of family difficulties but escalates into a dramatic and often painful ordeal, taking strong and sometimes controversial views of agencies meant to assist children and vulnerable families. It is a story that accepts the complexities of matters like child safety and parental attachment and the difficulties of applying formal regulations to real families.

Sylvie (brilliantly played by Virginie Effira) is a bartender and a loving but overworked single mother of two boys. One evening, she goes to work as usual, leaving the younger child, eight-year-old Sofiane (Alexis Tonetti), alone for a brief period until his teenage brother Jean-Jacques (Felix Lefebvre) arrives home to babysit. During that time, Sofiane is injured. His having been left unattended brings child welfare officials into the picture, who take Sofiane into foster care while the case is being examined. The family is close, and the forced separation is clearly a tragedy, but despite the coldly businesslike approach of the social workers she encounters, Sylvie is confident she can clear things up quickly.

From here, the film follows Sylvie’s determined efforts to resolve the situation and bring her son home, efforts which begin as a practical challenge and expand into a baffling, ever-changing maze with no obvious end. She attends family court hearings and follows instructions while trying not to neglect her older son, who is making plans for his further education. She is allowed supervised visits with Sofiane in a public facility; these visitation scenes are a subtle masterpiece of love, desperation, thwarted intimacy, and mingled joy and grief, and the renewed separation at the end of each visit is painful to watch.

When Sylvie is referred to a support group for parents of children in foster care, she is hopeful of picking up useful tips for dealing with the system, but her hopes are deflated when she learns some of the members have been trying to reunite with their children for more than ten years. Tension builds as the agencies meant to help troubled families seem to mutate from well-meaning but indifferent bureaucracies to something more sinister.

The lead actress, Virginie Effira, is one of the most prolific and sought-after actresses in France. A brilliant performer and multiple award-winner, she is absolutely the highlight of the film and gives life and interest to a fairly straightforward storyline. As Sylvie, she captures to perfection the range of emotions Sylvie is experiencing.

She carefully balances her character’s devotion to her children with her exhaustion and tendency to become distracted by other demands, making her an affectionate but imperfect mother. Each failure to overcome Sofiane’s separation from the family is made heartbreaking by Effira’s subtle but effective portrayal of pain, anger, and helplessness, ably supported by the two child actors playing her sons. The actress’ face tells the story very effectively, even when the dialogue falls flat.

The film’s view of its fictional child protection services is more overt in the final act. As Sylvie moves further from any reasonable expectations of a happy outcome, she resolves to take a completely new approach to her circumstances, including the parenting of her older child, with the help of her older son and her supportive brother (Arieh Worthalter).

The unconventional plot twist brings the story to a conclusion that must be called a happy ending despite being unacceptable from many perspectives. The film works equally well as a tense, poignant David vs Goliath battle and as a simple story of family cohesion and love conquering all, thanks to a strong lead actress and the directorial skill of a talented newcomer.