Playground
World Cinema Classics
•
Drama, UR
The original title, meaning 'a world', suggests that a school is a self-enclosed universe with its own customs and abuses - and a microcosm of the injustices outside. Nora (mesmerising newcomer Maya Vanderbeque) arrives in a new school, nervous about leaving her dad and yearning for the protection of big brother Abel (Gunter Duret). In fact, it's Abel who faces bullying - and when Nora tries to help him, his ordeal only worsens. Laura Wandel's extraordinary debut is a triumph in terms of focus and concision, with the action restricted to the school premises and the camera held exactly at Nora's child's-eye height. Arguably one of the best films ever made about childhood; without doubt, one of the most gripping, and lucidly truthful.
Up Next in World Cinema Classics
-
The Lover
Indochina, in the late 1920s. On a ferry across the Mekong, a French teenage girl meets the Chinese Man. She is fascinated by his riches and elegance, and accepts a lift in his limousine to complete their journey. Together, they enter a whirlwind of reckless, all-consuming passion, born from desi...
-
Raining in the Mountain
During the Ming Dynasty, a Buddhist abbot charged with protecting the sacred scroll of Tripitaka prepares to name his successor. An aristocrat and a general arrive at his secluded mountaintop monastery promising to help in his search, but are in fact scheming to secure the scroll for themselves. ...
