War of the Buttons

War of the Buttons (La Guerre des boutons, 2011) is a French family adventure directed by Yann Samuell — watch it online on iFILM. Two rival villages, one river between them, and a feud old enough that no one remembers who started it. The rules of engagement are settled: strip the buttons off your enemy's clothes, and you win. Lose them, and you walk home half-dressed.

Young Lebrac leads his crew — boys aged seven to fourteen — through forest ambushes, daring raids and tactical debates that would not embarrass a real general. Their rivals across the water are just as organised and just as fierce. The setting is rural France in the early 1960s, where adults hover at the margins while the children run their own republic with its own honour code. Éric Elmosnino and Mathilde Seigner play parents who catch themselves grinning despite everything.

The film draws on Louis Pergaud's 1912 novel, a French childhood classic that has stayed in print for over a century. Samuell keeps the tone light and scrappy, but the story underneath — about loyalty, betrayal and what a small victory actually costs — lands with more weight than the mud fights suggest. Stream War of the Buttons (2011) online on iFILM.