THE CLASS (2008) (***1/2)

This film began with a book written by French public school teacher Francois Begaudeau. He adapted the novel into the screenplay with director Laurent Cantet (TIME OUT) and writer Robin Campillo. Begaudeau even plays the teacher, Francois Marin. The children are all non-actors playing versions of themselves. For this documentary like non-fiction film, Cantet worked with the teens for a year crafting their characters. The result is a teacher film like no other you've ever seen. There is no trumped up drama or conflicts. The teacher isn't some perfect inspiration to every student. It simply watches.

The teacher goes into the new year at the racial mixed urban school with good intentions. But his 15/16-year-old students have a different opinion of those intentions. Throughout the year it is a constant battle of wills between Francois and his students. He tries to adjust to the ever-changing war plan of his students; sometimes his moves work and sometimes they backfire in his face.

His students range in personality and attitude. Esmeralda (Esmeralda Ouetani) is a cocky Arab girl who likes to make issue of everything he does. She's also an instigator. During the year she will get in a fight with her best friend, Khoumba (Rachel Regulier), which will affect how Francois is able to do his job. Souleymane (Franck Keita) has no interest in learning anything that Francois has to teach. He does the minimal amount of work possible and often turns the topic of class around to him. He comes from an immigrant family, and like many of the other students in the class, he has no use for learning how to speak proper French. But then there are kids like Wei (Wei Huang), an immigrant who keeps to himself. He's a shy kid who doesn't understand the ways of the loud and unruly kids. But he has good reasons for being quiet.

Cantet's approach to the film results in a patient story that lets scenes build. In doing so, the film naturally captures how classes can quickly spiral out of control. Simple lessons on proper verb use become heated debates on class. Other seemingly innocent discussions turn into rows about ethnicity, sexual orientation and gender. These scenes capture the social minefield that teachers walk into everyday, especially when dealing with kids that are far smarter than society gives them credit for being. Even the use of a common name in a word problem can be taken to task.

The filmmakers never take sides in this war and many audience members will be flipping elegances during the course of the film. A great deal of the problems that arise in the class comes from the teachers and students having totally different point of view of various subjects. Students view the actions of the teachers with skepticism, even when they're trying to do good. This leads to confrontations and accusations and heated emotions, and toward the end, the fate of one of the students hangs in the balance arising all from the misfortune of a series of events based on faulty information.

But all of this is presented in the most natural way. THE CLASS doesn't have the melodramatic highs and lows of so many other teacher films. Students don't stand on their desks in odes of solidarity to Francois. We stay within the walls of the school, so we don't really see the outside factors that are affecting the behavior of the students. No tragic drive-by shootings. We're like real teachers; we get whispers of problems and rumors. We only have the information presented in class. But don't expect the students to give any useful data to the opposing forces.