It All Starts Today

It All Starts Today (Ça commence aujourd'hui, 1999) is a French social drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Bertrand Tavernier. Philippe Torreton plays Daniel Lefèvre, the head of a pre-school in a depressed northern French mining town, where the pits are closing and the children arriving in his classroom are increasingly going without food at home.

Tavernier shot on location in an actual struggling community, mixing professional actors with local residents, and the film holds that texture throughout — abrasive, unresolved, honest. Lefèvre isn't a hero who beats the system; he's a man who keeps pushing because stopping would mean admitting the system wins. Stream It All Starts Today online on iFILM.