Un Monde

Winner of the FIPRESCI (International Critics’) Prize in the Un Certain Régard section of the Cannes festival earlier this year, write-director Laura Wandel’s terrific debut feature paints a disturbing picture of primary-school violence—both physical and psychological—and features stunningly realistic performances from a young cast of newcomers. Maya Vanderbeque is seven-year-old Nora, whose initial terror at entering the school is shown to be more than justified, while her beloved older brother Abel (Günter Duret) is facing a case of vicious bullying… Wandel brings an unnerving immediacy to the proceedings, and, in so doing, announces herself as a major new talent on the European film scene. ‘A gut-punch of a film that is not so much a portrait of schoolyard bullying as it is a sensory immersion straight into the heart of children abusing other children physically and emotionally, “Playground” [the English title] is a sit-up-and-take-notice blend of outstandingly natural performances enhanced by spot-on cinematic choices… The film plunges viewers into a world… of seemingly unavoidable unease, grabbing us from the first frame and rarely letting up its relentless focus on stoic suffering vs daring to upset the status quo.’—Lisa Nesselson, Screen