In occupied France during World War II, two young Jewish brothers, Maurice and Joseph, are sent by their parents to the Italian Zone, and display courage, intelligence and ingenuity as they escape the occupiers and try to reunite their family.
At the very end of the film, Maurice and Joseph, who became barbers like their father, are shown in the present day (2017) in a Paris cafe.
On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 83% based on 24 reviews, and an average rating of 7.3/10.[4] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 55 out of 100, based on 7 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[5]
Hannah Brown of The Jerusalem Post called A Bag of Marbles "One of the best movies told about the holocaust from a child’s point of view".[6]
The film was shot in the south of France and in Žatec, Czech Republic.