The Round Up

The Round Up (La Rafle, 2010) is a French war drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Roselyne Bosch and starring Jean Reno and Mélanie Laurent. Paris, summer 1942, still hoping the war will pass them by — three Jewish families.

Over two days French police herd more than twelve thousand people into a covered cycling stadium: the old, the sick, mothers, small children. No water, almost no doctors, nowhere to run. A Protestant nurse played by Laurent and a Jewish physician played by Reno try to hold things together inside; much of it unfolds through the eyes of young Jo, watching the grown-up world collapse overnight. None of this was invented — Bosch rebuilt the story from survivor testimony and surviving records.

By keeping the camera at a child's height, Bosch lands a heavier blow than any newsreel could. It is a hard watch, and a necessary one. Stream The Round Up (2010) online on iFILM.