Two Days, One Night

Two Days, One Night (Deux jours, une nuit, 2014) is the Dardenne brothers' drama you can watch online on iFILM. Sandra, played by Marion Cotillard, has one weekend to save her factory job: her coworkers voted to keep their bonuses instead of her, and now the ballot has been called again.

What follows is plain, brutal arithmetic. Sixteen people, and Sandra has to face each one and ask them to give up a thousand euros so she can stay. Some are ashamed, some turn hostile, some are barely scraping by themselves. Between the visits she swallows pills and fights the urge to quit. Her husband and a friend keep nudging her toward the next doorbell.

The Belgian directors shoot without a score or visual tricks, handheld and close to real time. The role earned Cotillard an Oscar nomination, rare for a French-language European film. It's a quiet, honest piece about dignity and solidarity that never reaches for melodrama. Stream Two Days, One Night (2014) online on iFILM.