The Class/Entre les murs (2008, France)

One of the things that struck me most about The Class is the way that it uses language and dialogue as its primary tools of communication, almost entirely foregoing plot and stripping the visual down to the barest components. Based on Parisian teacher Francois Bergaudeau’s semi-autobiographical novel, director Laurent Cantet worked with Bergaudeau to bring together a group of real-life junior high students (with Bergaudeau himself as their teacher, Marin) into a loosely-structured film chronicling a year at the school. The student body make-up is fascinating – there are few, if any, ethnically French students – the majority are immigrants or first-generation, from North and West Africa, Central Asia, and even China. What ties them together is their youth and their Western cultural appropriations – and a marked opposition to Marin and his fellow teachers, almost all of whom are Western European, if not French. The battles they wage are almost entirely through words, as Marin tries to impress on them the importance of the French language in his attempt to influence their lives and bind them together in a more national sense. How well he fares is more realistic to the nature of youth and urban education than most other films about similar subject matters. It can be an incredibly frustrating film to watch, but also funny – some of the students are hilarious, in that boastful and blustering teenage way – and quite emotional. It’s an incredible piece of filmmaking, collaborative, unblinking, and my vote to win Best Foreign Film at this year’s Academy Awards.