The Class

Two great thing about this film: 1. The topic (integrating migrants into societies) is very relevant in today's society. However, the film takes on the issue neutrally - it's neither pro-immigration or anti-immigration. It just shows the difficulties of dealing with the integration of people who are vastly different. 2. It's super-real, yet it isn't a documentary. It may portray an immigrant school, but it's more close to showing how students behave in any ordinary school than any other movie I've seen.

This is a fairly thought provoking film about young adolescents in a multi-cultural school setting. There are different perspectives shown via people with different personalities, although most of them are quite challenging for the teacher to engage with. I thought the performances seemed quite realistic and I suppose it's a good platform for discussing the themes it covers, including pupil peer pressure/bravado, tolerance, acceptance and how teachers respond to the way pupils 'act out'. There's discussion of the balance between positive encouragement for good behaviour versus punishment for negative behaviour. It may make you see things from other peoples perspectives and so I think it's a good film but it may seem a bit dull for some perhaps - its got a reasonably slow plot pace and I'd suggest its perhaps good as a film to discuss afterwards, rather than an entirely entertaining and 'fun' film as such but it has a pretty solid feel to it, so I'd recommend it, although it won't be for everyone.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]