This is, as I said in the header, an interesting but complex movie.
A 15 year old teen from a poor suburb of Paris, Sanou, wins a scholarship to the extremely prestigious Paris high school Henri IV. She has the smarts and the drive to do well there, but lots of things get in her way.
To start with, she has to take the train back and forth every day to get there. At home, she has no place quiet to study. (Her family occupies a small apartment, and her father, not really understanding the importance of study, especially for a girl, does not even realize he is interfering when he turns the tv on to watch soccer with her brother, whom he sees as the real hope for the family.) Her family also expects her to take care of her younger brother, etc. I did at times wonder how Sanou had been able to do well enough at her first high school to win the scholarship to Henri IV.
At Henri IV, she does not have the money to do even simple things, like buy a t-shirt, that the other students, from wealthy families, don't have to think twice about.
Eventually one of the teachers at her original school finds her an apartment and a job tutoring close to Henri IV, so that she doesn't have to commute every day and has some space and quiet. But there are also school social pressures that are difficult for a girl who is not from that social or economic world. (This movie, being French, is much more about financial/cultural differences than racism.) Sanou wants to fit in, and that causes her to do some foolish things that eventually get her in trouble. She's only 15, though, so it's unfair to expect her to be perfect in all her decisions.
This is not an American made-for-tv movie. Everything doesn't work out in the end with a big group hug.
There are also a few things that are a little hard to believe.
But all in all, this is a well-made, and sometimes deeply moving, film about difficulties faced by the economically disadvantaged in a world where the one possible door to economic, social, and intellectual advancement is school, but those who run the best schools aren't aware of the extra hurdles economically disadvantaged students often face. On the other hand, Sanou doesn't speak to her teachers about this, for whatever reason. Still, the teachers at Henri IV come across as very cold, very old-school, unlike at least some of those in the public school in the suburbs where she started. That is definitely a reflection of the anti-elitism that runs through this movie and much of French society, especially among teachers.
The acting is all good, the script as well, even if it does at times seem like it's made to show a middle-class audience all the problems they may not be aware of.
I can't guess, being a member of the middle class myself, how others like Sanou would see this presentation of their world and their challenges.
A 15 year old teen from a poor suburb of Paris, Sanou, wins a scholarship to the extremely prestigious Paris high school Henri IV. She has the smarts and the drive to do well there, but lots of things get in her way.
To start with, she has to take the train back and forth every day to get there. At home, she has no place quiet to study. (Her family occupies a small apartment, and her father, not really understanding the importance of study, especially for a girl, does not even realize he is interfering when he turns the tv on to watch soccer with her brother, whom he sees as the real hope for the family.) Her family also expects her to take care of her younger brother, etc. I did at times wonder how Sanou had been able to do well enough at her first high school to win the scholarship to Henri IV.
At Henri IV, she does not have the money to do even simple things, like buy a t-shirt, that the other students, from wealthy families, don't have to think twice about.
Eventually one of the teachers at her original school finds her an apartment and a job tutoring close to Henri IV, so that she doesn't have to commute every day and has some space and quiet. But there are also school social pressures that are difficult for a girl who is not from that social or economic world. (This movie, being French, is much more about financial/cultural differences than racism.) Sanou wants to fit in, and that causes her to do some foolish things that eventually get her in trouble. She's only 15, though, so it's unfair to expect her to be perfect in all her decisions.
This is not an American made-for-tv movie. Everything doesn't work out in the end with a big group hug.
There are also a few things that are a little hard to believe.
But all in all, this is a well-made, and sometimes deeply moving, film about difficulties faced by the economically disadvantaged in a world where the one possible door to economic, social, and intellectual advancement is school, but those who run the best schools aren't aware of the extra hurdles economically disadvantaged students often face. On the other hand, Sanou doesn't speak to her teachers about this, for whatever reason. Still, the teachers at Henri IV come across as very cold, very old-school, unlike at least some of those in the public school in the suburbs where she started. That is definitely a reflection of the anti-elitism that runs through this movie and much of French society, especially among teachers.
The acting is all good, the script as well, even if it does at times seem like it's made to show a middle-class audience all the problems they may not be aware of.
I can't guess, being a member of the middle class myself, how others like Sanou would see this presentation of their world and their challenges.
