The Children of the Marshland

Les Enfants du marais (The Children of the Marshland, 1999) is a French comedy-drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Jean Becker. The year is 1918, the setting is the marshland along the Loire — quiet, flat, unhurried. Two old friends, Garris and Riton, work seasonal jobs and fill the rest of their time with very little urgency.

Then life arrives uninvited. A woman. Old accounts that haven't closed. Their companions — incurable dreamer Amédée and train conductor Tane — keep adding small disruptions of their own. Becker draws a genuinely warm ensemble performance from Jacques Villeret, Jacques Gamblin, André Dussollier, Michel Serrault, Isabelle Carré and a surprisingly effective Éric Cantona. Stream The Children of the Marshland on iFILM — quiet French cinema at its most companionable.