“Cantet's film lulls the spectator into the rhythms of the everyday reality of school, belying a very carefully coordinated narrative structure that only becomes apparent in its final act.”  Leo Goldsmith - IndieWire

“a wise, funny cry of helplessness before the tsunami of anarchy that can be school-age adolescence.”  Nigel Andrews - Financial Times

“I wanted viewers to constantly be asking themselves if they were watching fiction or documentary.”  Laurent Cantet at Cannes

This is not a documentary, but it is so real, that you almost feel that it is.  True, that the man, playing the teacher is a real teacher, and that the film is based on his book, and the students depicted in the film are all played by non-professional high-school students.  But like Bégadeau’s book this is a work of fiction.  The reality of teaching in a modern high-school in urban France, is transformed into a story that not only reflects the reality of the classroom, but also treats the classroom as a microcosm of the wider world.  The lines between reality and fiction blur, and, unlike Hollywood there are no easy answers.  This film won Cannes top prize in 2008, and deservedly so.

Palme d’Or, Cannes