Playground

Bullying is such a tricky difficult issue to solve especially among kids. It's complicated not only because it's hard to discover if some kid is objected and suffers from it among his collogues but also because the subjected can easily transform into the new bully as an act of respond by transforming the anger into violence, and that is what PLAYGROUND portrayed effectively and painfully here.

This is a gritty story about the sociology of a school playground. It's also an account of love. Do you remember your school playground? How did we get out alive?

This is really a very remarkable film. Exploring the group dynamics of school children, director Laura Wandel has taken the radical choice of positioning her camera at children's height, registering only what children see. Adults are reduced to supporting roles, and they are only visible when they occupy themselves directly with Nora, the heroine of Un Monde, played amazingly by 9 year old Maya Vanderbeque.

Not only the way Wandel shows us what children see makes this film special. The script is also very clever in explaining how the mechanics of bullying can really make young children desperate, and how it is almost impossible to find a solution using adult logic. It is almost a cliché to say that children can be very cruel, but this film shows why and how it happens.

The almost documentary filming style, with lots of close-ups, is impressive. In one crucial scene, the camera focuses for several mintues on Nora's face, while she registers what's going on around her. The viewer hears what she hears, but sees only her face. The result is spectacular.

This film can easily stand next to the other great documentary-style film about school life, 'Entre les murs'. That film was nominated for an Oscar. 'Un Monde' is the Belgian entry for the Oscar race. It deserves at least a nomination.

Two things struck me immediately about Belgian writer-director Laura Wandel's powerful 2021 film. On a (slightly) negative note, I think whoever it was who came up with the English translation of the Belgian-French title ('Un monde') of the film really missed a trick - 'The Playground' might be 'literally' correct (in terms of the film's recurring setting) but 'the world' would be a much more accurate description of the (scale of the) impact Wandel's circumstances are having on Maya Vanderbeque's school newbie, Nora. On a more positive note, Wandel's visual focus here (courtesy of Frédéric Noirhomme's camera), namely a seemingly continuous close-up on Nora's face regardless of where 'the action' is is a quite brilliant (if not entirely original) construct, giving us an uncompromisingly intimate (and devastatingly moving) take on her world view. Of course, the other big positive here are the performances of Vanderbeque and Gunter Duret as Nora's brother, Abel - both inexperienced newbies delivering quite amazing turns.

As we see Nora struggling to come to terms with her new life - being isolated, made fun of and causing Abel grief as his younger sister - the other slight (maybe superficial) negative here is the 'one-track' nature of Wandel's focus (even if this is rarely less than compelling). Looking more closely, however, and we see other (aside from Nora's dilemma) wider issues at play - single parenting (and fathers taking responsibility), the difficulty for teachers in dealing with bullying, the likely impact that bullying has on academic progress and, perhaps most significantly, the issue of whether to 'turn a blind eye' when witnessing an obvious injustice in society ('grassing', if you like). Certainly, as a portrait of Wandel's 'central subject' (school bullying) it is difficult to imagine a more convincing portrayal.

In terms of comparator films, being Belgian(!) the Dardennes brothers spring most readily to mind, particularly (in terms of 'childhood portraits') Rosetta and The Son, whilst Ken Loach's masterpiece Kes also considers similar issues. Regardless, Wandel's debut film has much to commend it.

I've never seen anything quite like this film before. It is so truthful it could easily pass for a documentary about the life of young schoolchildren. But it is also as skilful a piece of storytelling as any mainsteam movie. Above all, it contains within it an unspoken but ever-present warning that , unless we're careful, we can end up fighting playground battles all our lives.