By Daryl Bär
Taking a more channeled approach to this classroom documentary Julie Bertuccelli paints an intricately detailed picture of the lives and personal development of several international students getting to grips with a foreign language in a foreign country. This is most certainly no “fluff piece”, as the time we are permitted with these youngsters manages to showcase their ability to strive and a potential for betterment which is often at odds with their family situation, living arrangements, homesickness and overall emotional state as they suffer the dramatic pangs and onset of teenage woes.
United in their differences culturally, religiously and socially this is a class of young boys and girls with aspirations and dreams of what they can achieve, each learning the French language at their own pace but often lacking patience, which in turn causes frustration and one or two instances of unruly behavior. As with all decent documentaries of this manner, it is clear from the outset that the insolent, the precocious, the timid and the motor-mouth each have a story to tell, and it’s these stories that will fascinate and uplift. Whether it be a teenage girl being allowed to attend school for the first time or a student who’s family escaped persecution from fascists in his home country there’s always something beneath the surface and it’s this focus that works to the film’s credit.
Deftly edited, School of Babel gives the audience 90 minutes with a class of 24 international students amidst the highs and the horror of learning French before their eventual integration within a high school. Drawing focus on a select few pupils stops the narrative getting stale or muddied and the leanness of this documentary ensures the attention is always “eyes front” in the class.
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