It all starts today = Ca commence aujourd'hui [Widescreen] [NTSC]

Bernard Tavernier’s “It all starts today” is a compassionate portrait of one man’s commitment and determination to challenge a social and bureaucratic system mired in inadequacies and injustice. Daniel Lefebvre (Philippe Torreton) is a kindergarten teacher who is passionately committed to his job but is also frequently demoralised by the social milieu in which he operates - an economically depressed mining town in France where the parents are mostly jobless, suffering from acute poverty as well as, in many cases, alcoholism, abuse and destitution. Lefebvre is also in conflict with the social service workers, who being critically under-resourced themselves, fail to respond to his urgent calls for assistance, and the local politicians who sacrifice the needs of the abject poor to boost their financial standing. Tavernier (Round Midnight, Safe Conduct, D’Artagnan’s Daughter) displays a true flair for social realism, but he also ably extracts humour and grace from his protagonists, steering away from tabloid exploitation of their depressing circumstances. Philippe Torreton puts in an admirable performance as a man who faces the problems in his personal and professional life with dignity, but also frequently betrays the seething frustration of an idealistic individual operating within a flawed bureaucracy. In French with English subtitles.