Playground

Bullying has become a big subject in the last 20 years, but this film tells a great story from the perspective of two children who are each victims of it. With the Dardenne brothers and others, the Belgians have redefined the social landscape of Italian neorealism.

A fine movie showing at the London Film festival. In the Belgium hard-htting tradition of the Dardenne's, with a hint of the great Alan Clarke's minimal shooting style. SHort and brutally honest. The director has an interesting voice...

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?

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.

This movie is everything it have to be. The camerawork is really brilliant , the hand held camera gives uncomfortable feel throughout the movie. The performances by siblings is just brilliant throughout the movie they carry the burden of movie. The story is really very simple but detailed. Every moment seem to be important and not a repetition. And thus movie is very quick but slow it gives time to viewers to get to understand what's going on. To quickly summarise this movie is a must watch, thought provoking and not easy to forget.