.){kind=link}
The school playground becomes a treacherous war zone in director Laura Wandel’s feature debut, Playground (Un Monde).
Seven-year-old Nora (Maya Vanderbeque) reveres her older brother Abel (Günter Duret), and on her first day of school she’s counting on him to look after her. However, when Nora discovers Abel is being bullied by other kids, she is desperate to tell her father so he can step in and help—but Abel insists she remain silent. Caught in a conflict of loyalties, Nora grows to resent Abel as he rejects her attempts to help and she gets caught up in playground politics that threaten her own social standing at school.
Shot from a child’s perspective, the camera usually stays tight on Nora but sometimes shifts to Abel and other children. Nora’s father and a few teachers also share screen time, but the camera rarely captures adults’ faces unless they’re bent down to child level. The school (inside and outside) is the film’s only setting; the story takes place over an undetermined period of time, but we never stray beyond the boundary of the school gates. Wandel’s use of close-ups, point of view, and setting keep us firmly fixed in Nora’s world and emotions. It forces us to retreat into the dark side of childhood and heightens our own emotional responses as the camera refuses to let us escape the unnerving playground scenes unfolding before us.
Nora’s relationships are constantly shifting as she gets caught in the middle of many webs. Her initial adoration for Abel sours as he puts her in a difficult position; he’s afraid to stand up for himself, but rejects Nora’s attempts to help and insists she not tell any grown-ups. Her sympathy turns to frustration and anger as his situation grows worse, complicating her own, and she lashes out at him as a result.
She also initially shows no interest in making friends at school, naively believing the only friend she wants or needs is her big brother. However, Nora becomes increasingly keen to cement new friendships as the siblings’ separation grows—naturally, at first, due to being in different grades, but as their conflict escalates Nora becomes the one to push Abel away. His transformation into the school pariah puts Nora’s own friendships and social acceptance in jeopardy by association. Resentful, and afraid of ending up like Abel, alone with no friends, Nora rejects Abel and puts all her hopes and goals on getting invited to a peer’s upcoming birthday party—a formal sign of social acceptance. It’s only when Abel’s loneliness leads him down a dark path that the two siblings reconcile in a heartbreaking scene.
Wandel uses the film’s short runtime (72 minutes) effectively; Playground clips along at a steady pace, and Wandel employs realism and point-of-view techniques to allow the drama to unfold in a carefully natural but efficient manner. It’s a succinct and moving feature that captures the emotional turmoil children experience at school. It shows parents and teachers sometimes at a surprising loss, refreshingly pointing out that adults, too, sometimes don’t know the best course of action.
The casual cruelty of children is on display, both in the explicit bullying of Abel and others, as well as within forming friendships and through nasty comments made the way young children often do, without forethought or understanding of their harm. It’s somewhat unnerving watching the scary side of the schoolyard play out onscreen, but there is also love, playfulness, and innocent expectation that shines through.
The film’s ending offers hope without a firm resolution, keeping true to the nature of the playground and children’s school experiences—that they are in constant flux.
Playground (Un Monde) premiered at this year’s Cannes festival in the Un Certain Regard section.