A worlddirected by the Belgian Laura Wandel, with in the main roles the young comedians Maya Vanderbeque and Gunter Duret, is one of the most touching films in the a certain look of this 74th Edition of the Cannes Film Festival, which was exceptionally held from July 6 to 17, 2021.
“” This selection in a certain look is just incredible, I am obviously super happy that the film can have such visibility. A certain look for me actually represents the highlight of strong views and staging biases. I am very happy that my first feature film is part of this section and especially during this edition. This will be a private cane festival, the first major cultural event after the “crisis” and it is extraordinary that the festival can take place and that people can finally return to theaters “Said the director.
What is amazing is thatA worldvery well done and very moving, won none of the prices granted by the jury of this section, but fortunately it has just obtained the Fipresci price of international criticism because ” The film explores the tenuous border that there is between love and violence in relations between children in the playground of their school ”justified the jury. “” This border has been filmed in a realistic, raw and uncompromising way. The tension between subtlety and evidence is maintained from start to finish. The magnificent first film by Laura Wandel is both destabilizing and deeply full of compassion ”.
Cannes 2021 – Laura Wandel, director of the film “Un Monde”
Initially selected for the 2020 edition, canceled due to the pandemic, the director chose to delay the release of her first one year’s first feature film to offer it worldwide this year at the Cannes Festival. “I am very moved to be here and to finally be able to show this film indoor (…) The cinema missed me enormously”underlined Laura Wandel on stage, surrounded by the actors of the film. With A worldthe filmmaker, former student of the Institute of Diffusion Arts (IAD) finds the Chemin de la Croisette, seven years after the selection of her short film Foreign bodiespresented in competition in 2014.
Synopsis Nora enters primary when she is faced with harassment of which her big brother Abel is a victim. Torn between his father who encourages him to react, his need to integrate and his brother who asks him to remain silent, Nora is taken in a terrible conflict of loyalty. An immersive dive, up to children, in the school world …
Cannes 2021 – Maya Vanderbeque and Gunter Duret, the main actors of the film “Un Monde”, directed by Laura Wandel
A world is really one of the best films in this 74th edition of the festival for essentially two reasons.
First for its very important subject: harassment in a primary school, which is never leaving throughout the film. However, it is rare in the cinema that we talk about primary schools. Generally when we approach the theme of harassment, this happens in colleges and high schools, between adolescents. We do not imagine that children, so young, can be as violent, nor that harassment can be so serious, and felt as violently both physically and morally.
Then becauseA world is turned to the height of a child all the time. The camera is always up to Nora, only films and sees the world of Nora, through her little girl’s eyes, who is helpless, with the harassment of her brother Abel and who tries to help him, while aspiring to find his own place among the other students. We enter school with her, we cross the playground with her, we are in class with her, we have lunch in the canteen with her, to the point of becoming her, to understand her thoughts, her sufferings and her dilemmas. Adults (teachers, supervisors, parents, etc.) are only blurred silhouettes that are clearly clearly distinguished when they get up on children, for example to talk to them, to treat them, console them …
The spectator is immersed in this world of the child at school. The discovery is disconcerting. Passing in adulthood, we forget this universe of the child, which can be very cruel sometimes, and in which we also find wickedness, racism, prejudices, exclusion, oppression, harassment…. And it’s up to the child to learn to manage, defend himself, and even sometimes try to find help, listening, friendship …
Learning life is a real suffering sometimes. And often adults do not help, by being absent, by not understanding, and even by not giving enough importance to what they consider kids, childishness or even whims.
The subject is poignant and the choice of reflected realization. The actors are excellent, very well directed. The director knew how to supervise them very well.
Cannes 2021 – Maya Vanderbeque in the role of Nora, in the film “Un Monde” by Laura Wandel
“I wanted to tell the first moments of a child, in the middle of the school, outside the family. I really wanted to show the strength and resilience of children, of a particular child, Nora, and how she will behave to find her place in this new world ” said the director. “I made this film because it is necessary for me. I have the impression that school is the first moment when you learn social life, when you have to fight to find your place. I would like to arrive at the fact that the spectator finds his child’s skin, that he is Nora ”.
It is for this purpose that for months, for the preparation of her film, Laura Wandel went to the playground of a school, which observed what was going there. She spoke with children, listened to them carefully and tried to confront her own memories with their experiences. She also met child psychiatrists and spoken with harassed children. It is perhaps also this meticulous work that allowed him to give this tone so just to his film.
Neïla Driss
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